A case study of housing needs of new Hispanic immigrants

During the last decade, Iowa experienced a 152.6 percent increase in Hispanic population. New immigrants are facing different problems on their arrival. Housing needs are immediate for the immigrants on their arrival to the Iowa communities. This case study is exploratory in nature and its purpose is to investigate housing conditions and housing needs of Latino immigrants in Iowa communities. A survey and a focus group interview with new Latino immigrants representing six northeastern counties were conducted in order to achieve the objectives of this study. It is known that the housing stock in Iowa is very old and the vacancy rates are very low in many communities. One of the important findings of this study is that housing availability and affordability are the main problems among new immigrants. Housing units that are occupied by Hispanic immigrants are overcrowded. In addition, homeownership rates for Hispanics are low. Neither public services nor private agencies assist new Hispanic immigrants with housing and their housing search. Consequently, Hispanic immigrants mainly rely on themselves as well as on their friends and relatives. Over half of the respondents are planning to move into new housing units that will provide them with more bedrooms. Even though, respondents are willing to pay a little more money to accommodate their needs, their incomes will not allow the majority of respondents to have a house of their own. One of the challenges Iowa faces is providing the immigrants with decent housing. If the needs of new immigrants are not met, Iowa can suffer the loss of population that will negatively reflect on the economic and social life of the state. The findings of this exploratory research are based on the opinions of 35 Latino immigrants. Given the fact that there are very little research studies on housing for immigrants in Iowa, the findings of this research can be considered as a contribution to future research studies