Kelly Thompson, Vice President of Grantmaking and Community Initiatives for the foundation and Chair of Disaster Ready Quad Cities' long term recovery committee, says the grants give tenants a lot of flexibility to pay for a wide variety of expenses. They must already be registered with the Red Cross to be eligible.
"Households that lived in 324 Main Street that are already working with any of these programs: SAL Community Services Open Door program, Humility Homes and Services, Community Action of Eastern Iowa, or the Salvation Army, they can just get back in touch with their outreach worker. And that outreach worker that they've been working with can help them access these funds."
Tenants who are no longer working with an agency should contact the SAL Community Services Open Door Program at 563.265.5500, and ask for Tammy Trice. The local agencies have had difficulty reaching some tenants due to a lack of phone numbers or wrong numbers.
Thompson says some of the approximately 70 households have found permanent places to live, but not all.
"Other households have had trouble finding permanent places that they feel confident that they can afford in the long term. One of the ways that these dollars, actually, a few people have chosen them to help is to take it not for a month's rent all at once, but to kind of take a piece of it over the next several months to supplement what they themselves feel that they can pay to increase their likelihood of stability in the long term."
Before the Davenport apartment building collapsed at the end of May, Thompson says the Quad Cities was already in an affordable housing crisis. Nonprofits have been working hard to help the displaced tenants even though it's a real struggle to find rental properties the tenants can afford.
She says donors to the foundation's Quad Cities Disaster Recovery Fund want the money to directly benefit the people who lived in the building. Money from the fund is distributed by the Quad Cities Open Network. And it can be used for rent and deposits on new apartments, furniture, transportation, and gift cards to use as needed. Click HERE for the donation page.
Funds to help tenants recover are also available through the City of Davenport and the State of Iowa. Click HERE for the Downtown Davenport Partnership resource page related to the partial building collapse.
