The Quad Cities Tenant Alliance is part of Quad Cities Interfaith. It held a town hall to ask the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, to do more thorough inspections and fund affordable housing.
Clark Olson-Smith is a pastor at the Zion Lutheran Church in Davenport. He says that HUD and the city of Davenport should do more to prevent landlords from neglecting their properties.
"Even if the city of Davenport was responsive, these are federal mandates that are not being fulfilled," he said.
"There's a lot of players who have responsibility here, and can do something to make the situation better for all the renters in the Quad Cities."
He says there's a lack of safe, decent, affordable housing.
"In The Davenport building, there were units that did not have heat, as well as the problems that eventually led to the collapse," he said.
"Everybody who's a renter who's seen the Davenport collapse just has that fear that their building is going to collapse, or that their building is going to be condemned, and then they'll be out of housing."
A 2020 report by the Quad Cities Housing Cluster found a gap of 6,645 affordable housing units.
