Cedar Rapids celebrates initiative to replace all housing lost to 2008 flood

CEDAR RAPIDS - City and neighborhood leaders took a few minutes Wednesday to celebrate the way tens of millions of federal disaster dollars have helped replace 1,200 or more residential properties lost during the 2008 flood.

The event also looked ahead to a last round of funding that will add yet another 200 single-family homes. Once complete, the city estimates it will have added 817 owner-occupied residential units and another 812 rental apartments, Paula Mitchell, the city's housing and redevelopment manager, said Wednesday.

Of the 817 owner-occupied units, most of which are stand-alone homes, the large majority of the newest 400 are being built in the city's core neighborhoods that had been impacted by the 2008 flood.

Mayor Ron Corbett applauded the City Council on Wednesday for requiring that most of the latest rebuilding be directed into the flood-hit neighborhoods.

'That's why we stand here today on Ellis Boulevard NW at the heart of the flood to stand in front of these newly built homes,” Corbett said.

The city has marketed its new home building program as ROOTs - Rebuilding Ownership Opportunities Together - to help attract potential homebuyers willing to move into core neighborhoods in exchange for a handsome financial incentive.

A typical ROOTs home cost $130,000 to build, and the buyer receives a down payment incentive of 25 percent of the cost or $32,500 to participate in the program. Buyers, though, must have incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median income, which is about $41,000 for a single person and about $59,000 for a family of four.

Tonya Vega, 26, on Wednesday said she never imagined that she and husband Jake, also 26, would be able to afford to buy a new home at such a young age. Both Cedar Rapids natives, they moved into their ROOTs program home with their two young children at 613 Third Ave. SW last October, she said.

Three of her friends, she said, also are buying homes in the ROOTs program.

'We have a future here, and we have stability,” Vega said. 'It's nice to see our neighborhoods are finally coming back together. The empty spaces are being taken up by beautiful new homes. ... People aren't giving up on Cedar Rapids.”

Hinzman said the city has a sufficient number of homebuyers who have prequalified to buy the remaining ROOTs homes, but she said the city still is encouraging people to apply because not all who are qualified will follow through and buy a house.

She said the city will be qualifying builders for the final round of ROOTs construction in the next month or so.

Linda Seger, Sandra Skelton and Don Karr, all officers of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association, were on hand at Wednesday's event to talk about the way ROOTs has brought the flood-hit west side back to life.

'For us, the program has filled in the missing teeth,” Seger said. 'Had this not happened, we'd be sitting still with empty lots and probably people not feeling the need to keep properties up to compete with the new homes.”

Seger said she has five new ROOTs homes across from her home at 1629 Eighth St. NW, and Skelton said she has a new home next to her and behind her house at 1125 10th St. NW.

They said many of the new owners are like Tonya Vega, young with children. The children are going to the neighborhood's Harrison Elementary School, and Skelton said attendance at her neighborhood church, St. James United Methodist Church, is up with new families and young children.

'You see this growth,” Seger said. 'We were an aging core neighborhood, and now we have all these young people involved. It's that shot in the arm that we needed.”

Karr, who was on the City Council from 2010 through 2013 during much of the city's flood recovery, said he wishes he would have had a chance at a new house in his early 20s like some that the ROOTs program is helping out.

'I just love it,” Karr said. 'Just drive down these streets. Look how this neighborhood has come back.”

City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said Cedar Rapids is the 'envy” of communities across the county who have been hit by a disaster and have housing to replace.

Council member Justin Shields said it was 'heartwarming” to listen to Tonya Vega get into a new house with her husband and children.

'They thought that never would happen,” Shields said. 'But it did thanks to this (ROOTs) program.”

Taking a look at a group of 113 new ROOTs homes, the city said the property value of homes on those lots before the 2008 flood averaged $77,986. The average value was $15,662 after the 2008 flood. And now the average value of the properties is $131,502.