Des Moines sees rent hikes after pandemic assistance ends

Rents have increased for some low-income Polk County families that had been relying on pandemic-era housing assistance.

Why it matters: The more than $100 million in federal support to Polk County ended in March , and there are families that will not be able to stay in their homes without it, Anne Bacon, director of IMPACT, told the Des Moines City Council last week.

State of play: More than 15,000 local households had received the assistance since 2021.

• Temporary federal rules also prohibited landlords who accept the payments from raising rents on those tenants for a year and required them to waive late fees.

Yes, but: Some landlords or "bad external actors" found ways to skirt the rules by raising rents just before or after the mandated rent freeze period, Bacon tells Axios.

• That means families are now grappling with those price increases alone.

Zoom in: It wasn't a massive trend or one IMPACT kept statistics on, Bacon said, but was frustrating and seemed as if some landlords were exploiting the program.

The big picture: Concerns about rent gouging sparked by the pandemic rental assistance have been ongoing across the country in recent years.

• In 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a statement warning about the problem.

Reality check: Rent is generally going up everywhere and the Midwest has been particularly hit hard, the Iowa City Press Citizen reports .

• Iowa's median rent was almost $1,200 in March, nearly 7% more than the prior year, according to rent.com .

What's next: Polk County reserved around $10 million of the federal funds to build affordable housing.

• The county tentatively plans to use the money to partner with a nonprofit on new homes for low-income families on vacant lots, deputy county administrator Sarah Boese tells Axios.
• They must do so by December 2025.