Iowa
Housing Programs Will Help Iowa Recovery
(TNS) – With more than 5,000 homes impacted by recent natural disasters – primarily flooding in Northwest Iowa and tornadoes in Southwest Iowa – state leaders Thursday announced new programs designed to assist Iowans coping with the aftermath.
The programs, from both the state and federal governments, will supply grants, loans and other financial assistance to Iowans whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by the tornadoes and floods.
More than 5,000 homes in Iowa have been impacted by the natural disasters, including roughly 2,000 that have been destroyed, Gov. Kim Reynolds said during a news conference at the Iowa Capitol.
Reynolds said the figures are expected to increase, and that housing has become a top concern in the communities that were hit hardest by the disasters. Iowa, like much of the country, faced a housing shortage even before the recent storms displaced thousands of Iowans.
Many of those Iowans want to stay in their communities, Reynolds said. For that to happen, more housing will be needed.
“We have been developing plans for the state’s immediate and long-term recovery for one of the most urgent needs that we’ve heard at every single stop, almost, that we’ve been at, and that is housing,” Reynolds said.
She described new state programs she said were designed “to address this need for not only temporary housing, but for plans to get permanent housing in place as soon as possible.”
Reynolds highlighted three state and federal programs in particular.
Major General Stephen Osborn , Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard , provides an update on the state’s natural disaster recovery efforts during a news conference at the Capitol in Des Moines on Thursday.
Housing assistance
The State Disaster Recovery New Housing Grant will provide $50,000 grants to developers who build single-family homes, duplexes and town homes in Iowa counties that fall under the federal disaster declaration.
As of Thursday afternoon, 23 counties were included in that declaration, with Woodbury County being the most recent addition. Reynolds and other state leaders said they expected more counties to be added.
That program is being funded with $10 million of federal pandemic relief assistance funding, the governor’s office said.
The Disaster Recovery Housing Assistance program provides forgivable, five-year loans up to $50,000 for housing recovery needs not covered by insurance or federal assistance. The program is not new – it was established by the Iowa Legislature in 2021, but never funded. The governor’s office said a $6.5 million transfer of state funds will now fund it.
This program is available to impacted Iowans in any of the counties under state disaster proclamations. A list of counties with an active state disaster declaration can be found on the state homeland security department’s website at homelandsecurity.iowa.gov.
Reynolds said the state also will designate for sale to disaster-impacted Iowans five homes newly constructed by the state’s Homes for Iowa program – under which homes are constructed by prison inmates – that are scheduled to be available within the next roughly four months. Each home is 1,200 square feet, features three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and costs $95,000.
Applications for those new programs can be submitted starting Monday at iowagrants.gov.
State working with feds
The state also has applied for federal approval to use a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that traditionally has been used by Southern states in hurricane recovery efforts, Reynolds said.
The program provides temporary housing in impacted communities while displaced residents work toward a more permanent housing solution. Under the program, Iowans in need would be eligible for six-month placements trailers, recreational vehicles or mobile homes.
Iowa has submitted an application to use the program here; a state official said the early signals from the federal government appear to indicate the state will be approved for the program.
A similar FEMA program would provide housing for up to 18 months. The state also has submitted an application for that program.
“The idea is that we work with those survivors, put them into a safe, sound situation, where, as the governor noted, they can work on their long-term housing,” Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director John Benson said during the news conference. “Some of that will occur relatively quickly if they’re refurnishing their home, have to refurbish it, (that will take) a couple of months. Others will take longer. That’s why we want to work on the long-term housing one with FEMA to get out to that 18 months.”
Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director John Benson provides an update on the state’s natural disaster recovery efforts during a news conference at the Capitol in Des Moines on Thursday.
New farmer assistance
Reynolds also announced a new program that will reimburse one year of interest paid on federal loans to farmers who are recovering from property damage and losses caused by the severe weather.
Briefings on what the state is doing to help Iowans, businesses and communities recover from the natural disasters were given at Thursday’s news conference by leaders of the state departments on transportation, education, inspections, insurance, health and human services, and natural resources and the Iowa National Guard .
Some examples:
* The Iowa National Guard has deployed 10 high-water clearing vehicles to assist with transportation of people, equipment and supplies in flooded communities.
* The Iowa Department of Transportation has deployed nearly 100 trucks and other pieces of equipment to assist with the removal of debris and other damaged materials.
* The Iowa Department of Education is working with schools that were damaged to help them be ready for the start of the new school year in late August.
* The Iowa Health and Human Services Department is helping recruit volunteers through Volunteer Iowa for cleanup efforts and is preparing to provide behavioral health services in impacted communities.
Reynolds described the response and recovery assistance efforts as a “whole of government effort” that includes federal, state and local action. She in particular praised local government and emergency response officials, some of whom are facing serious disaster recovery issues of their own.
“Iowans are special people. They continue to look out for the needs of others before they take care of themselves,” Reynolds said. “We’re making progress. We know we still have a long way to go. But we’re determined to get there.”
Iowans interested in the various state and federal assistance programs designed to help them recover from recent natural disasters can start at two websites: disasterrecovery.iowa.gov for state assistance and disasterassistance.gov for federal assistance. State grant applications can be submitted at iowagrants.gov.
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©2024 Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (Waterloo, Iowa)
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau ) – Survivors of sexual assault could get additional resources under a bipartisan bill that Iowa senators and representatives approved today.
If the governor signs it, the bill would provide $1.5 million to cover costs for sexual assault forensic exam services.
The money would go to nonprofits that specifically perform forensic exams for evidence for survivors of sexual assault.
Republican Sen. Cherielynn Westrich thanked survivors who advocated for the bill.
“Connect them to the care and support that they need to heal,” Westrich said. “It also helps our system respond earlier and more effectively so fewer victims fall through the cracks. This is about protection and prevention and getting survivors and victims a real chance at safety and recovery.”
The state money would also fund a new sexual assault examination center in Des Moines.
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Isabella Warren covers state government and politics for Gray Media-owned stations in Iowa. Email her at isabella.warren@kcrg.com; and follow her on Facebook at Isabella Warren TV on X/Twitter@isabellaw_gray, and on Instagram@IsabellaWarrenTV.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
Educators see the value in teaching interviewing, research, discernment, fact-checking, writing, photography, graphic arts, editing and story presentation skills.
In this partisan moment, open debate helps us find common ground
In this partisan moment, open debate helps us find common ground
Lydia Gerety said something recently that makes the heart of a longtime journalist melt.
“I was planning my grad party, making like grad invites,” the Ankeny High School senior started, “and I was, like, ‘What do I even put on the back?’ And I put the biggest accomplishment was: being editor-in-chief of the paper.”
Gerety, 18, was referring to The Talon, her school’s award-winning student newspaper. “I had cared so much about it,” she said. “And this year, especially, I was able to have just so much pride in my staff because they were understanding the passion and everything I was working for. It’s, like, it’s fun.”
I write this as a longtime member of the Iowa High School Press Association (IHSPA) board of directors, so I have a bias about youth like Gerety because high school students like her are impressive. They help produce a newspaper, yearbook, website, social media, video and audio to reflect their school community while also engaging in extracurricular activities, achieving high academic standards and, hopefully, having some fun with a social life.
That is why the IHSPA created, for the first time this year, an All-State team for scholastic journalism. Members of this team exhibit the best qualities that a student can put into action as a journalist, putting their work out there for all to see, absorb and embrace, but also to criticize — because what would our world be without critics?
Joining Gerety — whose stories include a piece on concerns parents have about equal access to education in Iowa — on the team are Evelyn Kraber, 18, of Iowa City West High School; Lily Rantanen, 18, of Iowa City High School; and Brooklyn Berumez, 18, Jay McOmar Esmael, 17, and Alyssa Muheljic, 18, all of Waterloo West High School. Waterloo West did not even have a high school program until four years ago, yet Berumez became the third Wahawk in a row to be named the IHSPA’s Journalist of the Year.
“I think a big thing is, like, believing in yourself,” Muheljic said about getting into high school journalism. She is the design and social media editor for the Wahawk yearbook and feature and multimedia editor for the Insider. An energetic daughter of Bosnian immigrants whose first language was Bosnian before she learned English in school, she plans to attend Iowa State University this coming fall and study psychology.
The Iowa City West’s West Side Story and City High’s The Little Hawk have been winning national recognition for years. Kraber and Rantanen could step into legacy programs and build on the excellence for which their publications are known.
But Ankeny’s program is in only its third year. That Ankeny and Waterloo West were willing to start journalism programs at a time when school districts in Iowa seek ways to cut spending brings hope that educators see the value in teaching interviewing, research, discernment, fact-checking, writing, photography, graphic arts, editing and story presentation skills.
They learn leadership skills, too. Ankeny’s Gerety is a prime example. She said she focused on her staff in her editor’s position. “I covered an ICE protest with one of our reporters, and there was, like, an anti-protest across the street,” she said. “And he just walked up to them and started talking to them. I asked him, ‘Hey, how’d you feel comfortable doing that?’ He’s, like, ‘Well, I just was curious what they had to say.’ I’m like, ‘That’s exactly why you’re part of this team.’”
And then there is Berumez, the Journalist of the Year heading to the University of Iowa and The Daily Iowan, where she will be Gerety’s colleague. She always has been shy, lacking confidence, she said.
Journalism not only brought her out of her cocoon, it saved her.
“From having experience and having stuck through it, and having been on both yearbook and news, it’s really taught me the lesson,” Berumez said, “that everybody has a story. Everybody deserves to have their story be told.”
Sometimes, they do not have the means to tell that story, Berumez said. She and all of her colleagues on this Hall of Fame team have shown they are willing to help give voice to those who otherwise would not have that opportunity.
We all should celebrate that.
Lyle Muller is a longtime Iowa journalist who, in retirement, continues to advise Grinnell Colleege’s Scarlet & Black student newspaper. You may read his Substack column, “Lyle Muller Doesn’t Have a Fancy Column Title,” at lylemuller.substack.com.
The five candidates vying for the Republican Party nomination for governor each went before conservative activists in the Des Moines area Friday night to ask for their support in the upcoming primary election.
The fundraiser for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, an influential evangelical political group, was the first event of the campaign season where all five candidates were present in person.
More than 1,000 people attended the fundraiser at an event center in Clive where Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also looked to unify support for Republicans in the upcoming midterms.
Lucius Pham/Iowa Public Radio
Feenstra and rivals appeal to conservative activists
The candidates took turns answering questions from Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann, who prompted them to share their views on key conservative issues: abortion, eminent domain, school choice and religious freedom.
All five candidates oppose abortion rights. Adam Steen, former director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, said as governor he would push for restrictions beyond the state’s current law — which bans most abortions at about six weeks of pregnancy.
“We have to be pro-life. We have to be life at conception. It’s fundamental,” Steen said. “And I’ll say this right now — with those abortion pills that are being sent into the state of Iowa right now, we have to stop those first and foremost. Get those out of there and ensure that life is protected at conception.”
The Iowa House passed a bill Friday that includes a measure requiring medial providers to only dispense abortion-inducing drugs directly to the patient in a health care setting. It is not clear whether the bill has enough support to pass in the state Senate.
Also on Friday, a panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling temporarily blocking the mailing of the abortion pill mifepristone, requiring that it be distributed only in person in medical settings. The ruling is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Lucius Pham/Iowa Public Radio
Businessman Zach Lahn of Belle Plaine said the conservative movement should look beyond abortion. For instance, Lahn said, conservatives should advocate to reverse declines in life expectancy.
“We have to make sure that we are fighting for healthy food, for less medication, for our children, for clean water, for cancer,” said Lahn, who was endorsed by MAHA Action, an advocacy group related to the Make America Healthy Again movement.
Reynolds vetoed a measure that would have put some limits on eminent domain, but the candidates all said they oppose the use of eminent domain for private-sector projects.
Fourth District Rep. Randy Feenstra said he would protect landowners’ property rights.
“The property belongs to the American farmer, the Iowa farmer, belongs to each of us and not anything else,” Feenstra said. “And if somebody wants to run a pipeline, or whatever it might be, then it’s negotiated between the private property owner and the business. And if the private property owner says, ‘no,’ that’s it.”
Former state Rep. Brad Sherman agreed.
“A private company who’s not a common carrier for a product that’s not a public utility should never, ever get to use eminent domain,” Sherman said. “It’s just that simple.”
The GOP candidates for governor are supporters of school choice measures passed in recent years. That includes Iowa’s education savings accounts (ESAs) program, which this year gave around $8,000 in public funding per student to help families pay for tuition at private schools.
Steen called the ESA law “one of the greatest pieces of legislation” passed under Republican control in the Legislature. Current state Rep. Eddie Andrews, R-Johnston, said he would like to see the state expand school choice.
“It didn’t just start with ESAs. I led the push for just regular district-to-district school choice. Then we added public charter school choice,” Andrews said. “I understood that parents need to be in charge of their kids’ education.”
If no candidate wins at least 35% of the primary vote on June 2, the nomination will be decided at a party convention.
Lucius Pham
/
Iowa Public Radio
Reynolds says election will affect GOP achievements
Reynolds told activists at the fundraiser she plans to be on the campaign trail supporting the person chosen as the GOP nominee for governor. She said the results of the election in November will have implications for landmark conservative policies put in place under her leadership.
Reynolds listed what she considers some of Republicans’ greatest accomplishments in the Statehouse in her time as governor, including cuts to income tax rates, a broad state government reorganization and one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States.
“I would put our record up against anyone,” Reynolds said. “It’s what’s driven more Iowa voters to register as Republicans. In 2018, Republicans held just a 10,800 voter registration advantage. Today, we have an advantage of over 198,000.”
But Republicans should not take their advantage among active registered voters for granted, Reynolds said. Democrats, she said, are united, well-funded and motivated to win back the governor’s office.
“We have the record. We have the numbers,” Reynolds said. “So the only way that we see a Rob Sand win is if we don’t show up. If we show up, we win.”
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