Christina Bohannan, in her second run for Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, attended a Johnson County-led affordable housing roundtable Wednesday, hearing from local leaders and area residents to “learn and listen.”
Bohannan was joined by a cohort of local candidates on next month’s ballot, including Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chair Rod Sullivan , Iowa Rep. Elinor Levin , state senate candidate Ed Chabal and house hopeful Anna Banowsky. About 25 other elected officials, including state Sen. Janice Weiner, and several residents packed into a meeting room at the Iowa City Public Library.
More: What the JoCo Supervisor candidates say about their priorities, from housing to spending
Bohannan recalls small town upbringing
Bohannan said mobile homes and manufactured housing are both important to her because she grew up in a mobile home.
“One of the happiest days of my life was when we got our double-wide mobile home because we had a little more space than we had before, and that felt like getting ahead for us,” Bohannan, who grew up in a small town near the Florida-Georgia border, said. “But I’ll tell you that I know that now there are a lot of out-of-state companies coming in, jacking up rents, jacking up prices for people who live in our mobile home communities and it’s really sad to see.”