STANTON, Iowa — Small towns are often known for their charm and community spirit.

Jenna Ramsey is the community development director of Stanton. It's a small town located in southwest Iowa.

“Stanton is a small but mighty community with Swedish heritage," Ramsey said. "Our population is 689. Wherever you go, you know people. There’s no stoplights. You can run in and get a cup of coffee.”

While she says Stanton is a very affordable place to live compared to a larger city, it still lacks affordable housing for young families.

“We just know that all the costs of everything seem to be going up right now, so that is what makes the affordable housing challenging,” Ramsey said.

Small towns all over rural Iowa are facing the same issue. To keep the communities growing and thriving, they’re turning to innovative solutions like 3D-printed homes.

“We are building the first prototype 3D-printed home here in Hamburg, Iowa,” said Tamara Brunow, founder and president of Brunow Contracting.

Brunow is a key partner in the 3D Affordable Housing Project.

“I'm very passionate about affordable housing because I needed affordable housing at one point in my life," Brunow said. "I was a single mom for 13 years and I had the luxury of having a house that was fairly affordable to me. What we're seeing right now in the housing industry, the starting point, the entry point is so cost-prohibitive to young families and a lot of areas, they're just not going there.”

On an empty patch of land in Hamburg, the hope is to build 25 to 35 residential units that will be for sale to future homeowners. The 3D Affordable Housing Project is a collaboration between Brunow Contracting, Iowa Economic Development Authority, and Iowa State University.

Julie Robison works in the college of design at Iowa State University. She says it will be a learning process to find out whether 3D-printed homes will actually save money.

“Part of our work is going to be to actually answer that question, what are the benefits of 3D printing?" Robison said. "We think that you can reduce the amount of time that it takes to actually construct homes, that you can seriously reduce the amount of time and labor hours to put up walls.”

Brunow says they will be testing materials, design, and energy efficiency to confirm if using 3D-printing technology will be a sustainable solution for affordable housing in rural Iowa.

“The places 3D-printed homes have been implemented right now, are in the South," Brunow said. "They don't have the swing and temperature difference that we do up here in the Midwest. So we deal with a lot of freeze-thaw. We have wind loads, snow loads. So all of that engineering has to kind of go back to the basics.”

If it does work out, they hope to expand into other small towns around Iowa, potentially serving as a national model for the entire Midwest. Robison says the project will also allow the university to develop a curriculum for workforce training to help educate the next generation.

“Our mission is transformation and research and technology-driven outcomes that can then change the economy and change lives,” Robison said.

Even though technology will be what draws people to the small towns, it’s the human connection that will keep them there.

“Especially since the pandemic, people want that sense of community, they want to know who their neighbors are," Brunow said. "They want to be a part of something.”

 

CAPE COD, Mass. — Around this time of year, Homeless Prevention Council in Cape Cod is busy matching donor families and businesses with the more than 200 local families in need. Donors buy gifts and clothes to help make this time of year more cheerful for folks going through so much.

"We've got such a community-focused, giving, and thoughtful community that really is aware of the unique needs of the seasonal nature of our economy," said Hadley Luddy, chief executive officer of Homeless Prevention Council.

It certainly is a bright spot during an incredibly challenging year. Like many areas with “seasonal economies” – think beach or mountain towns – her area is going through an affordable housing crisis.

With people now working remotely, families who can afford to do so, have moved away from urban areas to these seasonal economies for the space and pace of life. That, unfortunately, is making housing for people who work at local restaurants, landscaping companies and other small businesses difficult to find.

"This is not just a Cape Cod problem. It is a national problem. Um, so we're hearing stories all the time and actually seeing lots of amazing pilot projects and programs that are popping up all over the country," said Luddy.

While this problem continues to persist, Luddy says that one positive that has developed over the last few months is that residents are becoming more aware of the issue and beginning to understand that this is something that needs everyone’s help to solve it.

"The Cape Cod Times ran a story that really outlined the degree to the severity and how the housing crisis is really affecting people of all incomes, and one of the nice results of the story was we had two people call with rental housing available," said Luddy. "To see people reading the newspaper, making the connection, it goes back to our efforts all the time to say we're all part of creating a housing solution."

She says a lot of the focus now should be on educating people about the problem, but most importantly, on how they can be a part of the solution by using their own resources to create affordable housing.

"We really need to make this whole process much more user-friendly for the person who wants to be a part of the solution, so I think that's much of the first step that needs to happen and then we'll start to see more and more people as they're better informed, bring rentals online," she said.

MALVERN, Iowa (KMTV) -- On a piece of land that has buried train tracks running through it, Tyler Bartley decided to create a large garden to grow local, organic produce and offer it up at affordable prices to his community.

In the bedroom community of Malvern, Iowa it can be tough to compete with the larger city about a half-hour away.

"It was always hard to offer something here that Omaha didn't have better, but having good farmland and quality produce, that's not a challenge here," said Bartley.

Sown Local Foods is able to grow on a larger scale than a typical backyard garden.

"The amount of food has almost tripled in five years, and we're now just scratching the surface on field production of watermelon and sweet corn and stuff that you'd see at bigger stands," said Bartley.

A few years ago they met someone who had extra land attached to where he parked trucks for his business. Bartley set up a garden and is now harvesting arugula and other salad greens.

They have plots of land around the area in Malvern, Council Bluffs, Glenwood, and Pacific Junction.

Once the produce is harvested, it's sold through a number of places. They've partnered with a meal delivery service and restaurants. They also sell at farmers' markets and they have a stand in downtown Malvern.

They accept many forms of payment, including SNAP benefits.

At the stand, a lockbox serves as the cashier. People can just leave payment and take produce.

"The people that are shopping want healthy food for their family, and if you're on a tight budget that's sort of the sweet spot we're at anyways," said Bartley.

Bartley said it takes a lot of hard work, but it's worth it because they feel good about the work they're doing in his hometown.

This story originally reported by Jennifer Griswold on 3NewsNow.com.