State asking FEMA to waive mobile home rents

The state of Iowa is asking the federal government to skip collecting rent from flood victims still living in mobile homes provided by Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We don't know what the decision will be,” Tina Potthoff, spokeswoman for the Rebuild Iowa Office, said on Wednesday.

Nov. 27 had been the deadline for flood victims to move out of the temporary housing, where they've lived rent-free since the June 2008 flood.

The Iowa congressional delegation asked that the deadline be extended, and FEMA last week announced it would allow current tenants to stay on six more months, to June 27.

What wasn't known then was that FEMA would begin collecting rent at the fair-market rate. In Cedar Rapids, that's $659 a month for a two-bedroom mobile home and $920 a month for a three-bedroom unit.

FEMA said some families would be eligible for rent reimbursement, depending on their family size and financial situation.

On Oct. 23, 124 families remained in the FEMA mobile homes, down from 197 on Aug. 18. Immediately after the flood, 564 families were in the FEMA mobile homes.