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Senate Update: Ensuring good housing for veterans
by Bob Dvorsky, State Senator · Op-Ed · November 20, 2014


One of the best ways we can welcome veterans to our state is by ensuring they can afford a home that meets their families’ needs.


Between 2009 and 2013, Iowa’s Military Home Ownership Assistance Program boosted our state’s economy by leveraging more than $178 million toward home purchases. Even so, the program wasn’t keeping up with demand. This year, we eliminated the waiting list for the program, which provides service members and veterans with a $5,000 grant toward the down payment and closing costs on a home.

We also expanded eligibility for the Military Home Ownership Assistance Program to those who served during the Persian Gulf Conflict, in addition to those who served since 9/11. Plus, we made more financing options available, ensuring our veterans and service members get the best possible deal when applying for a home loan.

To learn more about eligibility and applying for the Military Home Ownership Assistance Program, visit the Iowa Finance Authority Web site at www.iowafinanceauthority.gov/Public/Pages/PC79LN25.

According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, more than 2,700 Iowa veterans are 100-percent disabled, and 60 percent of them own their home. To help more of these men and women who’ve served and sacrificed, this year we expanded the Disabled Veterans Homestead Tax Credit to all eligible veterans with a 100-percent permanent and total disability rating because of service-related injuries—regardless of income and how their home was purchased. We also extended the credit to surviving spouses or children of troops killed in action, or who died because of service-related illness or injury, as certified by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

For an application form and further information on the Disabled Veteran Homestead Property Tax Credit, go to the Iowa Department of Revenue Web site at https://tax.iowa.gov/disabled-veteran-homestead-property-tax-credit.



To contact Senator Dvorsky during the week, call the Senate Switchboard at 515-281-3371. Otherwise he can be reached at home at 319-351-0988. E-mail him at bob.dvorsky@legis.iowa.gov.