Spot on flood-buyout list doesn’t have to mean demolition

It's becoming clear that some of the 1,300 or so flood-damaged homes slated for a City Hall buyout can be renovated and returned to life. They don't need to be demolished.

Just how many can or should be saved is open to debate.

Take the flood-hit, working-class home, now beautifully renovated, that Andrew Smith has bought at 1312 J St. SW and now calls home.

“We basically got a brand new house,” says Smith, a 26-year-old, union apprentice heavy equipment operator. “It's a heck of a deal.”

A Jefferson High School graduate who had been commuting to work from Watkins in Benton County, Smith is only five minutes from his job while he, housemate and girlfriend Cristi Gillis and two little children help to bring back an old, flood-hit Cedar Rapids neighborhood. Smith doesn't see any reason he won't be in the house 30 years from now.

Block by Block, the near-year-old, non-profit neighborhood revitalization engine, bought, renovated and sold the house to Smith - even if letting the house wait for a city buyout and likely demolition would have been easier.

The non-profit - which has raised about $3 million in private dollars, has secured some $2.25 million in state funds and has access to $1 million in revenue from the city's local-option sales tax - bought the house because it sits on one of the 24 flood-damaged blocks that Block by Block is bringing back to life. Each block has an average of 16 houses.

Most of the group's effort has gone into helping existing flood-hit

homeowners renovate homes. But in some instances, to move the program ahead, it's bought homes that can be fixed.

Group leaders haven't wanted to use funds to buy homes at 107 percent of pre-flood value, as the city is doing. Its leaders would prefer that the city buy the houses, and, in turn, give ones that can be fixed to programs like Block by Block.

But Block by Block has been moving too fast for the city's buyout effort, and the program has needed homes so that hundreds of volunteer workers have enough work to be busy.

Block by Block has bought 21 homes to date to renovate, while the city has bought 85 so far, all close to the Cedar River and slated for demolition.

Focus on renovation

Block by Block is the creation of a trio of partners: Four Oaks family services agency and its Affordable Housing Network; Matthew 25 Ministry Hub; and the United Methodist Church.

Jim Ernst, president/CEO of Four Oaks and the Affordable Housing Network, said Block by Block attempts to pay owners of flood-damaged homes what the city will pay, although Block by Block may have in some instances fewer restrictions and end up paying a little more.

Once the home is bought, Block by Block has to renovate it. That can cost in most instances $25,000 to $50,000 for materials and contract help, even with donated labor. The program spent $73,294 to renovate the home at 1312 J St. SW that Andrew Smith bought.

Block by Block then puts the house back on the market in the price range where the house was before the June 2008 flood and in keeping with property values of other houses on the block.

Smith, for instance, paid $74,000 for his renovated house, which had a value of $61,064 before the flood and cost Block by Block about $42,000 to buy after deductions for insurance and federal disaster money the previous owner received.

The money from the home sales goes into the pot for other Block by Block home renovations.

Nudging the city

Homes are sold at a market value consistent with the neighborhood to protect the property values of all the homes on the Block by Block blocks, Ernst and the Rev. Clint Twedt-Ball, co-director of Matthew 25, said. Arriving at a reasonable sale price also takes into account that the renovated homes have been transformed, top to bottom, making them worth more than before the flood, Twedt-Ball said.

Block by Block's work is helping to prompt City Hall to move ahead with a strategy on what to do with flood-damaged homes city will buy, but may not need to demolish.

Just this week, Jennifer Pratt, the city's development coordinator, estimated that as many as 260 of the 1,300 homes on the buyout list may be worth renovating. The city will demolish most of the homes on the buyout list, though, leaving an estimated 469 buildable vacant lots, Pratt said.

Ernst said Block by Block has identified 50 to 60 homes on its 24 blocks that are on the city's buyout list and that 35 to 40 can be renovated and resold.

The emerging City Hall policy is one in which the city considers giving away homes it purchases or lots it owns after demolitions to responsible programs and builders like Block by Block.

Council member Don Karr said one flood-damaged home Block by Block purchased was that of his sister, Joyce Polton, 1512 Eighth St. NW. Karr said Polton did not want to return to the flood area and selling was best for her.

“I think we've been tearing down homes that can be reused, and Block by Block is doing a good job of getting people back in some of those,” Karr said.