Home-restoration program marches forward, attracts more money

In yards, on front porches and inside homes, the Block by Block program is moving toward its year-end goal of restoring eight flood-damaged city blocks.

“I didn't think we'd be this far along,” homeowner John Cahalan said last week from his front yard at 1302 Eighth St. NW.

Of 18 homes on the Eighth Street NW block - the first of the eight blocks targeted by the program - seven homes are complete, eight nearly so, two are being purchased for renovation and one, structurally unsound, will be bought and demolished.

The goal is to have most homes in eight blocks back on their feet by Christmas.

Block by Block is already meeting with neighbors and starting rehab in its second and third blocks: the 500 block of Fourth Street SW and the 1300 block of Ninth Street NW. The program expects the 1300 block of J Street SW to be its fourth block. The other four blocks have yet to be selected.

Paying for it are early Christmas presents - a $1 million gift from CRST International Inc. owner John Smith and his wife, Dyan; $700,000 in donations to a community flood fund administered by the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation; and $200,000 from the United Methodist Church. Plus, countless hours of volunteer help.

The Iowa Finance Authority is sufficiently enamored of the program that it is considering infusing $1.1 million in public housing rehabilitation money to bolster Block by Block's private donations.

Jim Ernst, president/CEO of the Affordable Housing Network's parent entity, Four Oaks, reports Block by Block quickly learned it needs to buy some properties, and it had expected that city buyout money might be available for that. For now, though, it isn't.

As a result, some of Block by Block's private dollars will be used to buy properties, and any infusion of state dollars can help with renovation costs, Ernst says.

An Iowa Finance Authority grant, he adds, also should let Block by Block's private dollars extend to another four to six blocks in the spring.

Meanwhile, Carol Bower, executive director of the local Neighborhood Development Corp., said last week that her non-profit organization is interested in investing in blocks near those covered by Block by Block to feed off the program's success.

The Block by Block program is managed by Clint Twedt-Ball, part-time project administrator, and Matt Mayer, full-time assistant project manager. The two represent the two non-profits overseeing the project: Twedt-Ball, a United Methodist minister, is with Matthew 25; Mayer is with the Affordable Housing Network.

Twedt-Ball and Mayer emphasize that Block by Block is as much about building neighborhoods as renovating houses. To become one of the eight Block by Block blocks, at least 60 percent of the owners on the block must agree to participate in the program. Once neighbors agree, they attend regular block meetings, at which they make decisions about the block.

“It gives everybody a sense that they can be in charge of their future,” Mayer says.

Last week, midway down the 1300 block of Eighth Street NW, Warren Williams, 62, was putting the last touches on the inside of his bungalow while volunteers were preparing to paint the home's exterior.

Williams, a regular at the block meetings, says neighbors have agreed to take their time with a couple of homeowners on the block who are having more trouble than others with their renovations.

“This is a challenge for everybody's budget,” says Williams, 1333 Eighth St. NW, “and it's time-consuming.”

Neighbor John Cahalan, 44, a school district employee, says Block by Block has made the neighborhood safer, though, by helping neighbors get to know each other.