Davenport staff propose buying, demolishing and rebuilding on abandoned lots to expand 'Dream' housing program

Davenport City staff proposed expanding the city’s Dream housing program to allow the city to acquire severely deteriorated abandoned properties, demolish them and build new owner-occupied houses, staff member Bruce said during a council management update.

The proposal would keep the existing forgivable-match approach while adding a second path for properties that are "too far gone" to be rehabilitated, Bruce said. "It's a dollar for dollar match with a 100,000 per house," he said, describing the current match structure and the idea of shifting some resources to full new construction on the worst properties.

City staff told aldermen the Dream program launched about 2½ years ago and was designed as a dollar-for-dollar forgivable match (forgiveness tied to owner-occupancy for five years). The city used $2,100,000 in heritage funds to target roughly 20 homes in the Gaines Street corridor; about 30 houses were initially identified in that area. To date staff…