| New reporting highlights yet another instance of Joe Mitchell putting himself ahead of Iowans. As a state legislator, Joe Mitchell voted against housing protections for Iowa veterans, people with disabilities, and people who use housing vouchers to afford their rent.
A real estate developer and landlord himself, Mitchell voted to eliminate laws protecting renters who use housing vouchers and voted against measures to “prevent landlords from kicking out existing renters who use federal housing vouchers” and “make exceptions for nonelderly people with disabilities, kids in foster care, and veterans who receive vouchers.”
All the while, Mitchell criticized a program that helps Iowans afford their housing while the cost of rent skyrocketed.
REMINDER: Mitchell voted to expand tax credits for real estate developers “that helped pad out his real estate portfolio,” his businesses “receiv[ing] a combined $2,559,880 in credits” thanks to the bill.
DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith:
“Iowans are hurting, and Joe Mitchell made it easier for greedy landlords and real estate developers like himself to put their own profits ahead of struggling Iowa families, veterans, and people with disabilities. Mitchell works for himself and his own bottom line – not for Iowans.”
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Iowa Independent: Joe Mitchell voted in House to let landlords reject renters who receive housing assistance
- As a member of the Iowa Legislature, Joe Mitchell voted to eliminate local laws that would have prohibited those renting out dwelling units from rejecting applicants who used housing vouchers issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- A landlord and housing developer, Mitchell says on his campaign website that he “provides working-class Iowans critical access to housing through his projects throughout rural Iowa.”
- But he voted five years ago for a law that blocked local governments from requiring landlords to accept federal housing vouchers from prospective and current tenants. He also helped block several amendments to the bill that would have allowed those housing protections for Iowans with disabilities.
- In March 2021, Mitchell voted for Senate File 252, legislation to preempt local governments from adopting laws to require landlords to participate in the Section 8 federal housing program, through which HUD offers vouchers to help low-income families, people with disabilities, and older Americans pay their rent.
- According to HUD data, more than 19,000 Iowa households use Section 8 housing vouchers.
- At a February 2021 legislative forum in Keokuk in southeast Iowa, Mitchell told audience members that he was a landlord, according to a report in the Daily Gate City, and that an Iowa City ordinance would force landlords to accept tenants paying just $500 a month. “It’s our home and we need to be able to decide who it goes to,” he said.
- During House consideration of the law, Democratic lawmakers proposed amendments to exempt localities with existing ordinances; prevent landlords from kicking out existing renters who use federal housing vouchers; and make exceptions for nonelderly people with disabilities, kids in foster care, and veterans who receive vouchers.
- Each of those amendments was rejected; Mitchell voted against all five.
- Advocates for veterans criticized the law.
- “Too many veterans face challenges finding housing they can afford, a good job, or even the ability to make ends meet after they put everything on the line,” Tom Powers of Waterloo, a Vietnam War veteran who served in the Navy, told the Iowa Independent in an emailed statement. “The least we can ask for, is for our elected leaders to stand up for us when we come home. But Joe Mitchell voted against protecting us from greedy landlords and housing discrimination.”
- In a December 2025 interview, Mitchell criticized federal housing programs.
- “Right now, what we’ve done on the federal level, since 1986 when they passed the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, it’s been a disaster. And the compliance is so encumbersome,” he said. “We have a variety of programs in Iowa that we’ve used to build workforce housing and attainable housing that’s much more straightforward and simple to use.
- “I want Washington to look a little bit more like Iowa in the way that we do things,” he added.
- About 23,000 Iowa households live in rental properties built or rehabilitated using the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. The HUD Office of Policy Development and Research website calls the program “the most important resource for creating affordable housing in the United States today.”
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