Like any tough, imposing challenge, it takes a village to help raise a community in need.
The Quad Cities Community Foundation announced Tuesday, December 16th, that the Quad Cities Housing Council (QCHC) will receive its 2025 Transformation Grant ($300,000 over three years), in support of the region’s first large-scale, multi-agency affordable housing development initiative.
The $300,000 grant is the largest grant the foundation awards each year. This year’s grant supports a response to one of our region’s most urgent challenges: advancing a solution to the affordable housing crisis, involving several partners.
“Affordable housing is a basic human need that has an impact on individuals and families, and our entire region,” said Sue Hafkemeyer, president and CEO of the Community Foundation. “What makes this project transformational is the scale of the collaboration. These partners are showing what becomes possible when we invest together in homes, stability, and stronger neighborhoods.”
Led by the Quad Cities Housing Council, the collaboration brings together Vera French Housing Corporation, Ecumenical Housing Development Group, Habitat for Humanity of the Quad Cities, Humility Homes and Services, and Rejuvenate Housing. Each organization will develop units (totaling 25) within the project area—spanning Marquette to Harrison and Locust to 4th Street—using land and properties they already own.
The QCHC was formed in 1999 to serve as the resource development arm of the Quad Cities Housing Cluster. The QCHC manages a grant pool and a revolving loan fund that the not-for-profit housing service provider and developer members of the Cluster may make applications to receive assistance in their efforts to provide safe, decent, affordable housing.
“Families are now the fastest-growing group entering homelessness for the first time in the region,” said Leslie Kilgannon, director of Quad Cities Housing Council. “Rising rents, limited supply, and high mortgage rates have pushed thousands of households to the brink. The challenge calls for big ideas and collaborative solutions.” She added that the QC faces a shortage of more than 6,000 affordable units.
The foundation has been giving these transformation grants since 2014, for “projects that are pilot projects or signature projects that are more visionary in the community, that draw partners together who create a need for something that is dire in the community,” Hafkemeyer said Tuesday morning, “Housing is a great example of that, affordable housing.”
The QCCF has given $2 million in transformation grants, to over a dozen organizations – “nonprofits who've had a vision to do something larger and really wanted to make that happen. That has been the goal,” she said. “Affordable housing need is really a focus of ours now. What's kind of cool about this particular transformation grant is that we've been visiting with the Regional Development Authority and they also see the need for affordable housing. So we've been in alignment on this plan to create more funding to bring more dollars together. And the fact that the Housing Council also has brought all these partners table and housing, that's kind of unique as well.”
The RDA last month granted $600,000 over three years in a similar grant to the council. The Community Foundation gave the group a similar three-year, $350,000 grant in 2021 for the research and study of QC housing solutions.
“It's led us to this, to this demonstration project,” Hafkemeyer said of the new grant. “Some really concrete ways of realizing the research and the work done to plan for this is now being realized in a neighborhood.”
Through the Silos to Solutions project, five leading housing organizations have joined forces to bring 25 new or rehabilitated rental and homeownership units to Davenport’s Central Community Circle. The project pairs housing development with supportive services, modeling a coordinated, neighborhood-focused approach to addressing the region’s growing housing crisis.
Two large Foundation multi-year grants
Kilgannon said the council is humbled to receive two transformative grants from QCCF, since 2021.
“But it's an indication of how important the issue is. It's -- no pun intended -- foundational to a successful, thriving community,” she said. “Housing is foundational. So yes, back in 2022, we received a three-year transformation grant and that was more an internal grant where we were building capacity. Some of the things we did were hire consultants to do a series of stakeholder meetings.”
It takes broad collaboration to address such a deep, complex need, of affordable housing.
“There are lots of organizations doing great work,” Kilgannon said. “You have government, you have philanthropy, you have business, you have education, you have health care, you have obviously the social services and funders. But we're trying to get out of our silos to come together and address this issue together.”
Together, with expected state of Iowa low-income housing tax credits, they plan to create 25 new units (mostly rental) with Humility Homes and Services, Vera French, Habitat for Humanity, Rejuvenate Housing, and Ecumenical Housing Development Group.
“They are all doing things in that neighborhood and have had a presence for years and already have relationships there,” Kilgannon said. “We view this as a further investment on the work that's already been done, not just by those agencies. 180 is in that neighborhood as well as smaller developers, homeowners, responsible landlords, that kind of thing. So we're hoping that we can partner with multitude of organizations to build upon what we're doing here.”
“Pooling of resources is something you see all the time amongst housing cluster members. I see it all the time with our membership,” she said. “But this is the first time so many of them have come together to target one neighborhood. So that's the uniqueness of this. And as I said, we're not coming in and telling the neighbors what to do and that they will have no involvement. We want to have the neighbors’ involvement.”
“Not only is it going to produce badly needed units and affirm the relationships and building community that already happens, but it's also going to push back on, I believe the false narrative that affordable housing is something that we have to tolerate and that it's negative and I reject that wholesale,” Kilgannon said. “Everyone deserves somewhere safe, decent and affordable to live. You know, all these essential workers we lauded during the pandemic, that's who we're talking about. People who work or people who can't work because they're disabled, but who deserve somewhere safe, decent and affordable housing and they just can't make ends meet.
“We're seeing more family homelessness, we're seeing more first-time homelessness and we can't wait for someone else to fix it or the federal government,” she added. “So we are the ones we've been waiting for. We want to lift up these agencies that we've been doing who've been doing this work, but now we're going to do it all together. So we hope it raises visibility and pushes back on that narrative.”
“I don't know an agency, whether it's Habitat, Project NOW, Humility or Vera French, etc. I could go on -- that is producing and maintaining units of housing that isn't producing a quality product,” Kilgannon said. “They are assets to the neighborhoods in which they're located. I have a group home in my neighborhood that Vera French runs. It's a great unit. No one is concerned about it. They have a relationship with the neighbors. They're responsible for the property, their staff on site. These are assets. And it's exhausting to defend what's really great work that's being done. So we want to flip the script.”
Combination of rental and owner-occupied units
Of the 25 new units, four will be owner-occupied (including rehab and new construction); 12 new construction for rental units, and the rest rental rehabbed units, totally transforming deteriorating, vacant properties.
An estimated five units owned by Humility will be supportive housing, for those who qualify – formerly homeless, with a disability and/or earning 30% or less of the area median income.
Those services include rental assistance, help getting a job, mental health services, connecting renters to resources they may need, like affordable child care, job training or VA benefits, Kilgannon said. “Supportive housing so that these people can be successful in that rental unit.”
“Our goal is maybe you need a year, or we have some individuals who've lived with us for 10,” Humility CEO Ashley Velez said Tuesday. “It's whatever they need for stability. It's person-centered services. But the goal is to be able to move them into a different housing option without support. What that looks like and what it is, it depends on the person and their barriers.”
The 2020 Housing Council 10-year plan, “Silos to Solutions,” found the QC has a need for 6,000 more units of affordable housing, and that need has grown since then, she said.
“There's still a great need obviously,” Velez said, noting last weekend the MLK Center in Rock Island housed 55 homeless people in a temporary emergency winter overnight shelter run by Project NOW. “I know we've created units, Habitat has made houses. Vera French did Carol's Garden Village. So we are strategically chipping away at that number, but we do probably need to look at updating it and figuring that piece out.”
Vera French Housing
Vera French Housing Development recently opened its 30-unit Carol’s Village Gardens, at 820 Harrison St., with 26 one-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom units. Six units are designated as permanent supportive housing, set aside for people recovering from homelessness.
“What we're going to do is something we've never done before – which is build townhomes, new construction,” said Stacy Kiser, executive director of VF Housing Development. “A part of this collaboration, we have rehab going on, we have new construction, we have the service piece. So all of us nonprofits are collaborating to really improve that kind of central city circle neighborhood and to increase affordable housing.”
Carol’s Village (also new construction) cost $11 million, mainly funded through state housing tax credits and HOME funds, and the complex opened Nov. 24, 2025, she noted.
The new project is to build rental townhomes, Kiser said.
“We don't have townhomes. We don't have a lot of family housing. Mostly where we have our one-bedrooms, we do have some two-bedroom duplexes,” she said. “But this would really be to round that housing piece that we don't have in this collaboration.”
Vera French isn’t sure how many homes they’ll build (possibly six), depending on funding, and the new grants will help with that.
“We can submit for another tax credit application or HOME funds, we can say, look, we've already had this commitment from our community who really believes in affordable housing,” Kiser said. “So that could be match dollars for another grant.”
Rejuvenate Housing
Rejuvenate Housing formed in 2021, and has done five affordable home (owner-occupied) projects in Davenport, and former QC Botanical Center executive director Ami Porter joined the nonprofit as its new head in January 2025.
“We truly believe that helps establish the neighborhood. It gives people a great sense of pride of ownership,” she said, noting their homeowners are typically limited to having the house five years maximum. “I feel like it's such a great opportunity for us – we haven't worked in this neighborhood yet. Everything we've done has been above the hill from 17th, 15th, 14th and 13th. So we'll be in a little bit different neighborhood to go down there and explore and see what homes we would be able to accomplish to make.
“We hope to do two to three homes as part of this collaborative effort,” Porter said. “I'm just honored to be part of the collaboration. They're all very much needed.”
“You’re starting from scratch and in many cases doing a complete tear out, down to the studs and giving these homes a whole new life,” she said. “People will be able to see, look at what we can do when we work together.”
Ecumenical Housing units
The EHDG owns 200 units of rental housing for low-income individuals in Davenport, and recently completed a 45-unit project ($11 million in rehabbing) with low-income tax credits, said group executive director Sam Moyer.
For this new project, his group will explore vacant lots and several vacant homes they plan to acquire that need to be rehabbed. “Organizations like mine, we're looking at either new construction of maybe like eight townhomes or potentially building that can be converted into apartments,” Moyer said, noting those potential properties include 907 West 6th St., and 1028 West 7th St.
The new grants make his work possible.
“You have to acquire the land. You have to start figuring out how the funding is going to work in traditional building,” Moyer said. “You’re going to set a sales price according to the market. Then you're able to get financing to make that happen. Our prices, whether you're talking about owner occupied, where you're going to be selling it for less than it costs to build, or in terms of like where we're going to be renting it for like 30% of what the market rate would be. You can't get traditional financing or the financing is going to be way less than it takes to actually get the project off the ground. So we have to get the gap funding.”
This central area of Davenport has a lot of vacant land or deteriorating housing, including buildings that should be demolished, Moyer said.
“We can come in and we think really improve it. We've done it before,” he said. “I've got already 28 units in that area.”
“We were able to take this as a very high crime, very scary neighborhood. And now it's actually transformed,” Moyer said. “There's still some crime down there, there's still a lack of investment. We think that through a transformational grant like this and by adding 25 really high-quality units, some owner-occupied, some rental, that it's just going to really improve the neighborhood quite a bit.”
Two new Habitat homes
Habitat QC executive director Tom Fisher King said his nonprofit will build two new homes with help of the grant funds, and many other donors.
“We have many donors and sponsors that help us to fund the house. And currently, we're raising nearly $200,000 for each Habitat home,” King said, noting volunteer labor is how they’re able to keep the home costs low.
The area Habitat and Housing Council usually focus on is south of Locust Street, and building infill housing on properties that have generally been demolished.
“The five nonprofits that are participating in this grant, we really looked at properties we already owned and being in proximity to this area, and so it makes it much easier for us, as far as acquisition, we already have these,” King said. “To be able to build in and around the central community circle, it'll be wonderful.”
Over the Habitat affiliate’s 32 years, and the 145 homes it’s built in the QC, 95 have been in Davenport, he noted.
Building 25 units in three years
The timetable to create the 25 units will be over three years, partly dependent on getting the state tax credits, Kilgannon said. “The new construction rental units will come last because we have to wait for more of those dollars. But the money from RDA and Community Foundation will be used for rehab right away for units that EHDG already owns.”
“This crisis didn’t appear overnight, and we won’t solve it overnight,” she added. “But we can choose action. Everyone deserves safe, secure housing, and this project is a significant step forward. It’s going to give us a foothold and build momentum as we work to improve housing solutions across the region. Affordable housing impacts everyone. It’s essential to a healthy, growing community and economy.”
The Silos to Solutions project has been shaped through coordinated regional planning by the QC Housing Council and supported by recent Fair Housing and Needs Assessments. Grounded in proven best practices, the project represents a unified, scalable strategy to expand affordable and supportive housing across the QC, the foundation said.
“This is the first time so many of the region’s major affordable housing agencies have come together on a single project,” said Kelly Thompson, vice president of grantmaking and community initiatives at the Community Foundation. “It’s a blueprint for how the Quad Cities can meet housing needs with collaboration, innovation, and compassion.”
For 26 years, the QC Housing Council has served as the region’s local housing trust fund for Scott and Muscatine counties and as the resource development arm of the Quad Cities Housing Cluster, a bi-state consortium of developers, nonprofits, lenders, government partners, and advocates working to expand affordable housing. The Council provides grants, loans, and technical support to help member organizations increase the supply of safe, quality, affordable housing for families earning 80% of area median income or less.
To build on the momentum of this new project, the Community Foundation has opened a fund for donors to contribute directly to the QC Housing Council’s ongoing work. Gifts can be made HERE.
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