Between 2011–2019, Iowa lost nearly 20% of its affordable housing, with rents under $600. In June 2019, North Liberty mobile home park residents saw a 58% rise in lot rents. In October 2021, 150 people were displaced by the fire and subsequent closing of Valley West Inn in West Des Moines.
What do these events have in common and what do they tell us about our community?
The experience of housing instability is diverse and felt across an array of Iowa communities. Housing stability goes beyond housing and impacts providers’ capacity to support families. Those who experience housing instability go through the trauma of being displaced and live each day without safety and connections, driving adverse childhood experiences that can have a long-term impact on Iowans' well-being.
Join Amal Barre, Project Director of unevictIA, for a conversation on the intersection of housing, social, health, and education services, where we will break down existing barriers to service delivery.
Objectives
Learn more about housing instability in this blog.
Amal Barre is an urban planner and housing researcher with eight years of experience working in the non-profit affordable housing sector. She is the founder and project director of unevictIA and serves as the Vice President of Planning and Strategy at Oakridge Neighborhood Services. Amal holds a MSc. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Amsterdam with research interests in affordable housing preservation, asset-based community development, and spatial and environmental justice. With family spread across three continents, she enjoys traveling and learning to do anything that her nieces and nephews find interesting.