CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Iowa officials are suggesting construction on tiny houses or boxcar houses as a way to address the state’s housing shortage.

Iowa could convert train box cars into homes and crank out new houses with 3-D printers to address a shortage of affordable abodes, a top state economic development official said Friday.

Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the Iowa Finance Authority, told the Iowa Economic Recovery Advisory Board she will propose legislation for additional spending after a recent $10 million round of workforce housing tax credits applications for rural housing.

Durham said the state also might look into tiny home developments, along with the box cars and printed houses, because “homeownership is the pathway to prosperity.”

There are other approaches in play.

Randy Edeker, Hy-Vee chairman, president and CEO, said housing is so short in the Chariton area, where his company has a major warehouse operation, his company has been restoring and selling houses on its own. Homebuilders have turned aside his pleas for construction in rural Iowa, he added.

Beth Townsend, director of Iowa Workforce Development, said inmates at the state prison in Newton are learning construction trades by building houses in a “really successful” program. If the state would pay for a new wall, the program could be expanded, Townsend said.

In general, the recovery board should be willing to challenge the status quo, Townsend added. “Not everything is working. Some things can’t be changed.”