Sioux City breaks ground on affordable housing development

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) – On Friday morning, Sioux City broke ground on its newest affordable housing project, but the proposal was a few years in the making.

“Two and a half years ago I just started looking, looking around the city,” Sioux City council member Julie Schoenherr said. “You know people are just really, literally starving for affordable housing.”

The City of Sioux City celebrated the groundbreaking for the Isabella Square Affordable Housing Development at 1200 and 1211 West Fifth Street.

“I found this city block and I thought ‘what’s going on with it?’” Schoenherr said. “Did a little investigating, ended up starting some conversations with Dan Hiserote and his son Dillon.”

“We were pondering for a long time what to do on this site,” Avalon Construction project manager Dillon Hiserote said. “And Julie, she approached us a few years ago and said ‘what do you guys think about doing this for the community?’ And we thought this was a great idea.”

“I actually thought maybe the city could purchase the property from them because it had been sitting vacant for so many years, but he had another idea to work with the city, which I couldn’t love more,” Schoenherr said. “Partnerships are what we really need to do in our community to get this housing shortage fixed.”

With eleven three-bedroom single family homes, the city hopes to alleviate some of the pressure of the housing deficit.

“We all know housing can be so unattainable, and this makes it attainable,” Schoenherr said. “We got a small little test project not too far from here and the homes were sold before they were actually 100 percent complete, and I think we’re going to experience that now too.”

With the positivity from both the city and the developers, it seems there will be more projects like this in the future.

“The city is working with Habitat with three lots that are not too far from here, they’re near our other small development,” Schoenherr said. “We have a lot of little pocket projects that are coming up.”

“It’s nice for us to be able to do this for lower income families, so they have the opportunities to have a home for themselves,” Hiserote said.

Six of the homes are expected to be completed by the end of 2024. The final five will be finished in 2025.

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