State-funded temporary housing for flood victims being implemented across northwest Iowa

SPENCER, Iowa (KCAU) — Just shy of two months after the historic floods, the state of Iowa is reaching out to those affected in a big way.

“I won’t say it was easy,” said Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director John Benson. “Because there are so many moving parts with this.”

Working with FEMA, local officials and outside entities, the state of Iowa has created the Disaster Recovery Temporary Housing Program , putting affected families into RVs and travel trailers for six months at no cost.

“It takes a little bit of the stress off of them so [they] don’t have to worry about ‘where am I going to rest my head tonight?’ ‘No, I’ve got a good place to rest my head, now I can put a lot more effort into what my long-term housing solution is going to look like going forward,” Benson said.

As the number of those impacted grows, the state is prepared to temporarily house as many people as need it.

“The primary qualifier is that you’re in a county that was impacted, FEMA has been turned on, you’re engaged with the FEMA program, and that your house is uninhabitable,” Benson said. “Right now we’ve got 385 households that have applied. We’re initially planning for up to 500, and if we have to go beyond that, we’ll be more than able to accommodate that.”

153 of those applicants are from Clay County, Iowa, which is currently laying down the groundwork to move residents into the temporary homes.

“We couldn’t be more appreciative of the state because they saw the need right away,” Clay County housing team member Brittany Spieker said. “We knew that FEMA couldn’t get their trailers in as soon as we really needed them, and it’s July and August in Iowa, it’s really, really hot, with the flood mold can grow and the atmosphere and the environment can’t be the best for some people. So, absolutely, this came at the best time.”

With the first few trailers set up, Clay County is prepared to move forward in their community recovery process.

“We’ve had so much support from the state level, from the federal level, Red Cross, all of it, and we just worked really, really hard together,” Spieker said. “We keep hearing that we’re way further along in the disaster, and I don’t know what that means because this is our first disaster. But I’m super proud of our community and our housing team and everybody that came together to help.”

Officials expect Clay County residents to be able to move into the temporary housing in the upcoming weeks.

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