By Cindy Hadish
The Gazettecindy.hadish@gazettecommunications.com
(Liz Martin photos/The Gazette)Mark and Paula Deason sit by the fire in the backyard of Mark's mother's flood-damaged house in southeast Cedar Rapids. The two lost their home in the flood and are living in a tent with their two children and dog. They are trying to find housing, with help from their church, before it gets much colder. Before the flood, they were living with a relative but because their name wasn't on the lease, they have been unable to get flood assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
CEDAR RAPIDS - Mark Deason, his wife and their two children lost their home in the June flood and are now living in a tent, hoping to find a house before it gets much colder.
"If I can find a cheap house, I'm taking it," said Mark Deason, 40. "It could be winter, for all I know."
Deason said he doesn't qualify for flood assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency because his name was not on the lease where he and his family were staying, even though they were contributing financially to the household.
Dan Abel, 56, a VISTA volunteer, is trying to find and count the flood victims like the Deasons who are living in tents, cars and campers.
He's found about 50 so far in campers or tents in Cedar Rapids neighborhoods and another 30 or so at campgrounds. His work will continue into Palo and other flooded areas.
"It doesn't matter who they are or where they came from," said Abel, noting that some of the homeless are out-of-state workers in Iowa for flood recovery work. "We don't want them to freeze to death."
Still fresh is the memory of Steven Howard, 48, who died of hypothermia in December 2006 after being turned away from a Cedar Rapids shelter because he had been drinking.
With temperatures closer to freezing this week, the homeless are running out of time to get inside someplace warm.
Abel's report on homeless numbers will go to the Linn County Continuum of Care Planning & Policy Council, which will try to devise plans for those still without homes.
"The numbers so far haven't been huge," said Ann Hearn, deputy director of community planning for Linn County Community Services. "That doesn't mean they're not out there. It might mean we're just not finding them."
Mark and Paula Deason sit by the fire before they start dinner last Friday. The couple and their two children are living in a tent after losing their home in the June flood. They stayed for a while in a friend's mobile home until she needed it back, then in a homeless shelter briefly, before pitching their tent in the backyard of Mark's mother's home, which also was damaged in the flood. Deason, sitting next to a fire pit he built out of bricks, with a fireplace pipe on top to funnel heat, said his family has been comfortable so far.
He and his wife, along with their 7- and 13-year-old sons, sleep in the tent set up in the backyard of his mother's flood-damaged home in the New Bohemia neighborhood of southeast Cedar Rapids.
They use portable toilets set up in the neighborhood and take showers at the home of his nephew, who is already housing other flood victims.
For a time after the flood, the family lived in a mobile home in Vining owned by a friend, but they had to move when she needed it back. They stayed briefly at a homeless shelter but left.
Deason said he didn't want to stay at a camp site and wanted to keep his sons close to their schools.
"It's the only place where I could come and feel safe," he said of their camp site off Fourth Street SE. "I know the neighborhood, and the people here know me."
The homeless problem is exacerbated this year by the floods, which made affordable housing more difficult to find and damaged two Cedar Rapids homeless shelters. Both of the shelters — the Cedar House Shelter and Madge Phillips Center — are expected to reopen.
State park campsites where some flood victims are staying don't technically close for the winter, but water will be turned off in coming days, around the first frost.
The Hawkeye Downs campground, 4400 Sixth St. SW, will shut off water next week and close around Nov. 1.
Ricky Jackson, 37, who has been staying in a camper at Hawkeye Downs, said he lost his home in northwest Cedar Rapids to 5 1/2 feet of floodwater and his FEMA money to his ex-fiancee.
Jackson, a former construction worker on disability because of a back injury, has stayed in the 21-foot camper since the floods with his dog, Buddy, a boxer. The two stay warm with a propane heater.
"It's not the best accommodations," Jackson said of the used camper. "I don't mind camping when you have a home to go back to."
He plans to leave the camp site soon, after finally finding a rental home that accepts pets.
Some flood victims have been living on their property while rebuilding.
"That's our home," Howard Grimm said, pointing to a motor home behind his flood-damaged house on Ellis Boulevard NW.
Grimm, 81, and his wife, Gladys, are among several in the neighborhood living in RVs until they can move back into their homes.
As of this week, the couple had been comfortable in the 33-foot motor home, but Grimm doubted it would last much longer.
"Who would want to stay in that cold thing in the wintertime?" he asked, noting that they could use propane heaters and an electric heater, if needed. "In a cold winter, none of those are going to keep you warm."
The Gazettecindy.hadish@gazettecommunications.com
(Liz Martin photos/The Gazette)Mark and Paula Deason sit by the fire in the backyard of Mark's mother's flood-damaged house in southeast Cedar Rapids. The two lost their home in the flood and are living in a tent with their two children and dog. They are trying to find housing, with help from their church, before it gets much colder. Before the flood, they were living with a relative but because their name wasn't on the lease, they have been unable to get flood assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
CEDAR RAPIDS - Mark Deason, his wife and their two children lost their home in the June flood and are now living in a tent, hoping to find a house before it gets much colder.
"If I can find a cheap house, I'm taking it," said Mark Deason, 40. "It could be winter, for all I know."
Deason said he doesn't qualify for flood assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency because his name was not on the lease where he and his family were staying, even though they were contributing financially to the household.
Dan Abel, 56, a VISTA volunteer, is trying to find and count the flood victims like the Deasons who are living in tents, cars and campers.
He's found about 50 so far in campers or tents in Cedar Rapids neighborhoods and another 30 or so at campgrounds. His work will continue into Palo and other flooded areas.
"It doesn't matter who they are or where they came from," said Abel, noting that some of the homeless are out-of-state workers in Iowa for flood recovery work. "We don't want them to freeze to death."
Still fresh is the memory of Steven Howard, 48, who died of hypothermia in December 2006 after being turned away from a Cedar Rapids shelter because he had been drinking.
With temperatures closer to freezing this week, the homeless are running out of time to get inside someplace warm.
Abel's report on homeless numbers will go to the Linn County Continuum of Care Planning & Policy Council, which will try to devise plans for those still without homes.
"The numbers so far haven't been huge," said Ann Hearn, deputy director of community planning for Linn County Community Services. "That doesn't mean they're not out there. It might mean we're just not finding them."
Mark and Paula Deason sit by the fire before they start dinner last Friday. The couple and their two children are living in a tent after losing their home in the June flood. They stayed for a while in a friend's mobile home until she needed it back, then in a homeless shelter briefly, before pitching their tent in the backyard of Mark's mother's home, which also was damaged in the flood. Deason, sitting next to a fire pit he built out of bricks, with a fireplace pipe on top to funnel heat, said his family has been comfortable so far.
He and his wife, along with their 7- and 13-year-old sons, sleep in the tent set up in the backyard of his mother's flood-damaged home in the New Bohemia neighborhood of southeast Cedar Rapids.
They use portable toilets set up in the neighborhood and take showers at the home of his nephew, who is already housing other flood victims.
For a time after the flood, the family lived in a mobile home in Vining owned by a friend, but they had to move when she needed it back. They stayed briefly at a homeless shelter but left.
Deason said he didn't want to stay at a camp site and wanted to keep his sons close to their schools.
"It's the only place where I could come and feel safe," he said of their camp site off Fourth Street SE. "I know the neighborhood, and the people here know me."
The homeless problem is exacerbated this year by the floods, which made affordable housing more difficult to find and damaged two Cedar Rapids homeless shelters. Both of the shelters — the Cedar House Shelter and Madge Phillips Center — are expected to reopen.
State park campsites where some flood victims are staying don't technically close for the winter, but water will be turned off in coming days, around the first frost.
The Hawkeye Downs campground, 4400 Sixth St. SW, will shut off water next week and close around Nov. 1.
Ricky Jackson, 37, who has been staying in a camper at Hawkeye Downs, said he lost his home in northwest Cedar Rapids to 5 1/2 feet of floodwater and his FEMA money to his ex-fiancee.
Jackson, a former construction worker on disability because of a back injury, has stayed in the 21-foot camper since the floods with his dog, Buddy, a boxer. The two stay warm with a propane heater.
"It's not the best accommodations," Jackson said of the used camper. "I don't mind camping when you have a home to go back to."
He plans to leave the camp site soon, after finally finding a rental home that accepts pets.
Some flood victims have been living on their property while rebuilding.
"That's our home," Howard Grimm said, pointing to a motor home behind his flood-damaged house on Ellis Boulevard NW.
Grimm, 81, and his wife, Gladys, are among several in the neighborhood living in RVs until they can move back into their homes.
As of this week, the couple had been comfortable in the 33-foot motor home, but Grimm doubted it would last much longer.
"Who would want to stay in that cold thing in the wintertime?" he asked, noting that they could use propane heaters and an electric heater, if needed. "In a cold winter, none of those are going to keep you warm."