Community members ask Senator Joni Ernst to address housing, childcare concerns during Lansing visit August 11


Senator Joni Ernst visits Lansing Works Office ... Senator Joni Ernst visited the Lansing Works Office on Main Street in Lansing Thursday morning, August 11 to tour and learn more about the facility and discuss issues of importance within the community. Pictured above during her visit, left to right, are Paul Baldwin; Chris Troendle, vice president at Lansing Housing Products, Inc.; Maryann Baldwin, owner, Lansing Office Works + Innovation Lab and Lansing Kitchen Works; Bruce Palmborg, board president of Main Street Lansing; U.S. Senator Joni Ernst; Sarah Updegraff, Kee High School/Middle School Principal; and Andy Kelleher, executive director of Main Street Lansing. Photo by Julie Berg-Raymond.

by Julie Berg-Raymond

Lansing Office Works was stop No. 77 on Senator Joni Ernst’s annual 99-county tour Thursday, August 11, as the senator met and spoke with about a dozen local citizens on the issues they see as being most important in their community.

“So great to be with folks in Lansing today,” Ernst tweeted on her social media account later that day. “Through the opening of the Lansing Office Works co-working space and Main Street Lansing business development programs, they’re making major steps in fostering entrepreneurship within the city.”

Among the attendees Thursday was Kee High School and Middle School Principal Sarah Updegraff, whose appraisal of the situation in Lansing was met with nods of agreement by everyone in the room. “If we don’t start serving our families with housing, with daycare and with amenities, we’re going to have a dying community,” she said.

Updegraff told Ernst that one of Lansing’s biggest issues is affordable housing. “We have to balance the needs of the hotel/motel industry with the needs of our families,” she said. “We have an abundance of Airbnbs; but families are looking for middle-income housing.”

“Housing is an issue; this is what we hear all across Iowa,” Ernst replied. She described two ideas she said are taking hold in Iowa to address the housing issue: In one of those ideas, “pocket neighborhoods” made up of “moderately priced homes for workforce housing” (ecia.org) are annexed to towns and cities - as has been done, for example, in the community of Maquoketa. The Maquoketa Pocket Neighborhood Project consists of 10 single-family, 1,064-square-foot homes on a 2.5-acre plot of land the City of Maquoketa bought for $10 from Jackson County.

Another idea Ernst identified that she said is beginning to address the issue of an affordable housing shortage in the state of Iowa is the application of 3-D printing technology to home construction. She spoke specifically about 3-D printed homes being constructed in southwest Iowa, and said she is interested in seeing if this will turn out to be a viable issue for rural areas.

“I’m excited to see if it works,” she said. “I’ve heard lumber is starting to come back down; but if you can find other building materials that are energy-efficient and reasonably priced,” she added, it might be an option to consider.

According to all3dp.com, an online magazine devoted to 3-D print technology, “the majority of 3-D printed housing projects you’ve heard of used concrete-like materials, but not necessarily concrete… (T)hey’re using a mixture of cement, sand (or crushed stone or gravel), fibers, and occasionally other materials.” And a recent report by National Public Radio (NPR) noted that, while “affordable housing advocates say 3-D printed homes could be a game changer,” they have not yet proven to be cheaper to build than conventional houses. Ernst told attendees Thursday about a company in Iowa that is in the process of building both a stick-built home and a 3-D printed home, in order to compare the two in terms of costs and energy efficiency.

“I’m so excited about the 3-D house thing,” Ernst said. “I really hope it works.”

CHILDCARE CONCERNS
Next to housing, Updegraff identified childcare as a pressing concern in Lansing and the surrounding area - noting that there are only two in-home providers in Lansing, and one in New Albin.

Ernst said she understands that “it’s a need” - in Lansing, and across the state. “One of the things that frustrates me is that a lot of employers are like, ‘not my problem.’ But if they want employees, it is,” Ernst said. “If they want good employees, and they want them to show up, they have to have childcare.”

Ernst does not see the federal government as being a change agent on this issue - because, she said, “every community is different; and I think it’s hard for small communities to navigate regulations. But we can certainly provide support - some policy and maybe some grant opportunities. But we’re not going to provide the answer. It has to come at state and local levels.”

She said she has been focusing on the issue of childcare for the past couple of years and says it has been a bi-partisan effort. “We love to work on this, all together,” she said. She told attendees that she had recently met with the Iowa Women’s Foundation and said that they had some proposals for day care, as well. In January, she will be either the ranking member or the chair of the Small Business Committee - where, she said, she will continue to work on this issue, including finding ways to modify existing language.

Main Street Lansing Executive Director Andy Kelleher took her up on this idea, suggesting a need to “expand the definition of ‘workforce development.’”

“There is quite a bit of funding available to assist communities with workforce development,” Kelleher said in sharing his thoughts with Ernst. “But the federal definition of ‘workforce development’ is pretty much exclusively limited to training the workforce. They will build and stock an education center, and they will fund a workforce study, but they won’t branch out too far beyond that. However, what we hear from businesses time and time again is that the main issues affecting their workforces are lack of housing and lack of childcare. These are key components of workforce development. If you want to develop your workforce, you need a place to house the workers and a place to send the kids while the parents work. Otherwise, you won’t get workers.”

Ernst told attendees she thinks “flexibility can be key,” and noted the possibilities of using increased space in schools for day care, and about using parts of nursing homes. “I love multi-generational types of activities,” she said.

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Updegraff also raised the issue of “expanded services in rural areas for mental health.” As is the case across the country, mental health issues often spill over into law enforcement. Allamakee County Deputy Kevin Reinhardt told Ernst that “a lot of times, by default, we are the first people to interact, and we’re not always the best… I would love to see an expansion of mental health facilities in our community.”

Ernst told the attendees she was grateful for their input, saying, “It’s good to know where the concerns are, and maybe to brainstorm with other communities… We’re going to find some solutions.”