DAVENPORT, Iowa — Several Davenport families still aren't able to go home after the City ordered everyone to vacate the apartment building on 401 W. 4th Street. The building was evacuated on Mar. 26, with people living in 18 units forced to evacuate.
At the Mar. 27 council meeting, assistant city administrator Nicole Gleason explained more details about the engineering report that led the city to evacuate the building, which included concerns about a structural wall. "Recommendation one, the building should be immediately evacuated due to potentially unsafe structural conditions. The building may fully or partially collapse with little or no warning," she said.
At the council meeting, community members voiced concerns about the displaced residents. "I'd like to thank the city for getting those people out of that building before we had another catastrophe," one woman said, "unfortunately these people have no place to go. They have no food, they have no hygiene products."
The City has given those residents temporary housing at the Relax Inn on Brady Street until the end of March and has said the Neighborhood Services department will continue to offer help. Despite that, people at the council meeting asked for higher standards for building conditions in the city.
"Why are we getting these buildings to the point where they're going to collapse? I mean we already had one," resident Katie Stuart said, referencing the apartment that collapsed on 324 Main Street.
Other community members asked for broader changes to improve the city's housing. Latrice Lacey, the city's civil rights director asked the council to work on improving the city's building ordinances. "We see a lot of complaints involving negligent landlords who are not making repairs," she said.
Meanwhile, Ashley Velez, the Humility Homes and Services's executive director said the city has reduced their Community Development Block Grant funding from $37,000 last year to $25,000 this year. "$25,000 barely pays for one person's salary. I run a deficit of about around $150,000 a year in emergency shelter," she explained.
One council member also talked about the vacated building. "I want to shout out 401 4th Street and that sadness and I see the city is trying to move forward and do some things," 5th Ward Alderman Tim Kelly said.
Despite the risk of partial or complete building collapse noted in the report, a News 8 crew was at the building on the night of Mar. 27 and did not see any roads or sidewalks closed off.