Midamerica Housing Partnership

Midamerica Housing Partnership is a private non-profit, housing development organization with a mission to build, preserve, and enhance affordable housing. Founded in 1992, MAHP has grown from a budding non-profit in cedar rapids to a full service development, construction, and property management corporation. Serving an expanding radius of eleven urban and rural communities, MAHP creates and provides housing for families, the elderly, and disabled as a way of underpinning economic development throughout Iowa. MAHP developed 503 rental units, including 93 elderly and 18 disabled units, manages 409 units. As of october 27, 2005 MAHP housed 346 families consisting of 846 individuals including 424 children. The average household income was $12,614, slightly up from $12,268 in 2004. According to the 2000 census, 12,371 households or nearly one out of every four households in cedar rapids (including 4,229 families) have incomes of less than $25,000 a year. 5,513 of these households pay too much for rent (30% or more of their gross income). The census also shows that 8,843 people in cedar rapids live in poverty, including 2,523 children between the ages of five and eighteen. Based on these numbers, Midamerica Housing Partnership conservatively estimates that 3,709 low-income households in cedar rapids are severely cost-burdened, threatened with homelessness, and/or living in sub-standard housing.