In River Bend, one man's slow remodel is a blight for city, neighbors

David Houston says he has been trying to reuse what others would throw away to transform a once-abandoned home in Des Moines’ River Bend neighborhood.

A self-described “natural man,” the 41-year-old wants to help others on the north side get away from the self-destruction of the streets and encourage a way of life that is healthier and more life-sustaining: working with your hands, preserving one’s body, reducing waste.

Houston sees the two-story he took off the hands of the River Bend Neighborhood Association at 1609 Eighth St. as a place that could help neighbors prosper. One day, the former architecture student hopes to rent bedrooms to a carpenter, plumber and electrician who would help him remodel homes for his nonprofit, Homes 4 My Peeps.

“Everything starts at home,” he says.

But Houston’s work-as-you-go ways have run up against neighbors and city inspectors, who have cited and fined him for storing materials on the property and failing to keep it up since he took possession of the home assessed at just $11,400.

Jon Royal, president of the neighborhood association, said the association sold the house to Houston on contract in 2013 with the understanding he'd remodel the outside to historic standards within five years. That didn't happen.

"It's never been completed in a timely manner. Neighbors have been complaining the whole time. And the city's been more than generous trying to give him time," Royal said. 

Inspectors, city crew haul away materials

Houston believes the city should be doing more to help him, and said the neighborhood association let him down as well. "I hit a wall when they said I had to follow historic guidelines, but that street didn't wind up being in an historic district," he said.

Since, Houston says, inspectors have been hounding him to clean up the property and wrap up the years-long remodel on the 1901 home. It’s still listed in very poor condition by the assessor.

On July 26, a city crew came to the home with a requisite police officer in tow and hauled away piles of recycled materials where Houston had also made things like compost tumblers, worm farms and hoop houses to sell so people can grow their own food.

He says they’ve threatened to haul away a rented dumpster behind the house because it’s been there too long.

“We’ve been doing this by the hair of our chiny-chin-chin, and we don’t have a lot to do it with. But they’ve been taking what little we have,” he said of he and his friends. “At the same time, they’ve never said you have to have it done in X amount of days.”

City says little progress has been made

Reared by a single mom in neighborhoods across Des Moines, Houston says he can’t help but think his property is a target because Sixth Avenue, a stone’s throw away, is getting a major face lift.

That’s not the reason, said Vince Travis, a neighborhood inspections supervisor in the city’s Community Development Department.

“We’ve worked with him for a long time. But there’s no progress at all. The neighbors are upset that we’re addressing their issues and not this one.”

Travis says Houston got a pass more than a year ago, when he was cited for all the exposed building materials on the property. At the time, he was told he needed to get a building permit and put tarps over the materials and keep them in a more orderly fashion.

A new city inspector had been trying to work with Houston after more complaints this summer. “But he finally just told him, I can’t keep doing this if you’re not going to perform a little bit,” Travis said.

Typically, inspectors give homeowners a break when they see even slow progress on a remodel, but they need to protect and cover their building materials, Travis said.

Houston has told city officials he needs time to pull money together to finish the remodel.

Travis says it’s already been declared a nuisance house, so he either has to finish or it will be demolished.

Houston has been given some suggestions on where he might try to find some assistance. He also has been told he can make a claim to the city for the loss of some materials, which Houston says he has. But he will be charged for the city clean-up crew’s work and time.

In the past, it might take the city a year or two before a nuisance home would receive notice it needs to be torn down. And the city only had money to demolish about 10 to 15 homes a year.

But that’s going to change next year with the Blitz on Blight program initiated with revenues from the local option sales tax approved by voters this spring. The city is hoping to demolish as many as 150 nuisance properties a year.

Last week, Houston obtained a new building permit so he can legally continue his remodel.

Here’s hoping he finds a little help and gets to work.

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Reach her at lrood@dmreg.com or 515-284-8549. Follow her on Twitter at @leerood and on Facebook at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog. Our subscribers make the Reader's Watchdog possible.

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