A housing study estimates the population of a northwest Iowa city hit by flash flooding in 2024 has dropped by about 100, far less than expected.

Keith Carl, the researcher who conducted the study in Spencer, said only 22% of the 750 vacant housing units he identified are “habitable,”  which means the rest aren’t safe to move into. “Just because of the flooding disaster, I think there’s just more of a need to rehab existing units and put them on the market and have those new units contribute to the tax base on the community,” Carl said.

Carl suggests the city could consider putting new housing in some of its older neighborhoods. “Or to maybe revitalized older neighborhoods by rehabilitating some of the more distressed properties, but it comes down to the number of partnerships that the community has with local, state and federal funding sources and grant opportunities,” Carl said. “The bigger the circle of partnerships you have, the more buckets of money you can tap into to buy down the cost of a housing project.”

Over 2000 structures in Spencer were damaged by flooding in June of 2023. That includes 80 homes that collapsed or had foundations that caved in.

(Reporting by George Bower, KICD, Spencer)