For the past 40 years Iolans have bemoaned a lack of adequate housing and how this has held back our growth. ALL OF WHICH points to the fact that Iola needs to pounce on the opportunity to develop the two-acre site of the old Allen County Hospital. ALREADY, the talk about town is uplifting. People are thinking about what the changes could mean. How invigorating. How fun. And so needed.
In 1979, an article in the Iola Register quoted Gil Brown, an executive with Berg Manufacturing, saying Iola industries and businesses could hire as many as 2,296 additional employees in the near future if housing were adequate. At the time, Brown estimated Iola needed an additional 400 units.
That same song, verse after verse, has been sung ever since.
We don’t know had housing been available if the thousands of additional jobs would have materialized. What we do know is we experience an almost 10 percent decline in population every 10 years, as opposed to a 6.1 percent growth by the state, and that to turn the corner we need to attract more jobs.
Back in Mr. Brown’s day, Iola’s population was 7,042. Today, we hover at 5,700, with a housing stock that stands at virtually 100 percent occupied.
Mr. Brown was somewhat singing to the choir. In the first seven months of 1979, the ground for 37 houses had been broken. A good share of those were on the north and east sides of the city.
This year to date, one has begun; a duplex on East Buchanan. Currently, 48 homes are on the market.
Compared to other cities, Iola has a higher number of homeowners than renters, with the median home value at almost $59,000, compared to the state median home value of $130,100.
Typically, a city’s housing stock is comprised of 65 percent owner-occupied and 35 percent rental. Iola’s is almost a 70/30 ratio.
The median rent in Iola is $520 a month, about 15 percent more than a 15-year mortgage on a $60,000 home. Rents in Iola have increased 4.7 percent over the last several years, compared to a national average of 1.7 percent.
These two sets of figures, as provided in a report by the Kansas Rural Housing Conference, indicate there’s little wiggle room in either rental or housing stock, and that lack of available stock jacks up rent.
Plans include a grocery store and four separate complexes of apartments and townhomes with eight to 10 units apiece.
Besides these obvious advantages, perhaps the best argument is what the plan would bring to a prime spot in town.
The 80,000-square-foot hospital is valued at a mere $157,000, proving once more it has lived beyond its usefulness. Its very presence helps to depress the value of the neighborhood.
— Susan Lynn
Old hospital site a perfect location for new development
