DES MOINES, Iowa — After the pandemic, Vicki Lee was laid off from her job as a legal assistant in Des Moines, leaving her no option but to lean on community resources and loved ones.
"I never expected to not have housing. I had to reach out to family and friends to be able to pay my housing during — I think it was about three months is what I received the receive the IMPACT [assistance] for," Lee said.
Vicki isn't the only one who found herself in that situation. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, 27% of Iowans are in renter households that are considered "extremely low income."
"Affordable housing is super important, not just for the Des Moines community, but for our whole state," Lee said.
Lee also shared the rental assistance she was given by IMPACT was denied by her landlord, forcing her to obtain that money from the organization in a different way to make ends meet.
Currently, the state is on the clock to use or lose nearly $90 million left over from an Emergency Rental Assistance Program to help with expanding affordable housing throughout Iowa.
In order for that to happen, the state would have to reallocate the remaining funds from the ERAP program by the end of this week, according to IMPACT .
The Iowa Financial Assistance program released a statement in response that reads in part:
"IFA has ensured that Polk County has the information necessary to apply for nationally pooled ERA2 funds through the U.S. Treasury. "
IMPACT advocates for affordable housing. They shared that, unless the state decides to move some money around, the places people can afford to live could continue to shrink.
"If the state of Iowa doesn't reallocate that money within the state, it doesn't go back to the treasury, it doesn't go back to the federal government — it gets reallocated to another state," Anne Bacon with IMPACT said. " And so if it will help families, it just won't be Iowa families."