A $3.5 million grant gives the Iola Housing Authority plenty of tools to upgrade its properties to make life a bit more pleasant for its tenants.
The grant was announced in late December, with Housing Authority director Gina Honeycutt learning the specifics in the subsequent weeks and months.
The plan is to hire a grant coordinator to oversee how the money is spent over the next four years.
The funding will be earmarked for physical improvements to the Housing Authority’s 147 properties throughout town, Honeycutt said.
Some will go to such things as energy and climate control systems. Others will have accessibility issues addressed and restrooms remodeled.
Many of the Housing Authority’s older units will be reconfigured to finally allow clothes dryers to be inside the main living area. For years, a lack of space meant those dryers were used in outbuildings.
The funds will be much-appreciated for Iola’s units, nearly all of which were built in the 1970s and 1980s.
“They’ve been well maintained,” Honeycutt said. “Iola has kept up its properties well.”
But after 40 years or so, even the best structures can show their age.
HONEYCUTT learned about the opportunity for the federal grant, coming from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, because of a recent dip in IHA’s occupancy rates.
Public housing groups whose occupancy rates dip below 94% are designated as “troubled,” Honeycutt explained.
Iola’s had dipped into the 80% range.
The HUD grant was dedicated for those ranking in the troubled category.
There were many reasons for the drop, Honeycutt explained, few of which were in the city’s control.
She noticed occupancy numbers suffered after HUD instituted a nationwide policy in 2017 prohibiting smoking within 25 feet of any public housing structure.
