Rejuvenate Housing opens doors to 4th Davenport project

For the fourth time in as many years, Rejuvenate Housing has rescued a once abandoned house and restored it to enable another family to call it home.  The nonprofit, which is on a mission to improve one house and one block at a time, unveiled its latest central Davenport project during an open house Thursday, […]

For the fourth time in as many years, Rejuvenate Housing has rescued a once abandoned house and restored it to enable another family to call it home. 

The nonprofit, which is on a mission to improve one house and one block at a time, unveiled its latest central Davenport project during an open house Thursday, July 17. Located at 516 W. 15th St., the renovated two-story home was on full display as community leaders, housing advocates, neighbors and Rejuvenate board  members and supporters toured the single-family home. “This is our biggest house yet,” Gwen Tombergs, the nonprofit’s board president, said as she opened the front door and welcomed visitors.  When Rejuvenate acquired the home 15 months ago it was an abandoned duplex in deteriorating condition, including a crumbling block foundation. After months of reconstruction, renovations, the 2,355-square-foot home now is a four-bedroom (possibly five-), three full-bath home for sale. From top to bottom, the house has been stabilized, reconfigured and renovated with all new electrical, HVAC, plumbing, appliances, floor coverings, fresh paint and a new roof and siding.  “Every home deserves a second chance,” Rejuvenate Housing Executive Director Ami Porter told the QCBJ as she proudly talked about its transformation.   In fact, when Ms. Porter took the nonprofit’s helm on Jan. 2 and did her first walk-through “it was gutted, down to the studs. I’ve seen it evolve from the studs to where it is ready to sell,” said Ms. Porter, who returned to her Quad Cities roots from Wisconsin to rejoin the nonprofit industry. She previously spent 23 years with the Quad Cities Botanical Center in Rock Island. She brings nonprofit, fundraising, strategic planning and project management experience to the new role.

Affordable housing

Ms. Porter said the group expects to complete two projects this year, but is determined to continue to grow and become financially stable enough that it could complete three or four houses a year. 

This marks the second house Rejuvenate has hired Bettendorf contractor Clark Design and Development to complete the renovation. On the first two homes, Ms. Tombergs said Rejuvenate volunteers led the renovations themselves.  Its earlier homes – all in one central Davenport neighborhood – are at: 603 W. 14th St., 514 W. 17th St., and 527 W. 15th St. All three have been sold to new homeowners and work is underway at Rejuvenate’s fifth property at 617 W. 13th St.  According to Ms. Tombergs, who co-founded Rejuvenate Housing with the late Don Decker in January 2021, the organization has invested more than $300,000 in this house alone. Now it has listed it with Ruhl&Ruhl Realtors for $175,000, a comparable price for the neighborhood. (Mr. Decker died before the first house sold in July 2022.) “It’s only through the grants we receive from Davenport’s Extreme Dream program and the Quad Cities Housing Council that we can do a project like this and of this quality,” she said. That assistance also enables Rejuvenate to price it so it’s affordable, she said. The  Extreme program matches up to $100,000 in renovation costs as a forgivable loan, she said.  “Our financial partners have been amazing,” Ms. Tombergs said. “We couldn’t do it without them.”  Other financial supporters have included the Bechtel Trust, private gifts, a few local financial institutions that have donated to the cause “and 100% support from the board,” she added. 

Who qualifies

To qualify to purchase one of Rejuvenate’s homes, the buyer must occupy the home for at least five years, meet certain income guidelines based on family income, make a $1,000 downpayment and complete a post-purchase training class with Rock Island’s GROWTH Corp. For more information and to see income guidelines, visit rejuvenatehousing.org.  “These houses have a long rich history of people who loved them and had families in them. This is a great opportunity to provide it to another family,” Ms. Porter said. “I’m really eager to meet the next owners.”  She said Ruhl&Ruhl already had a showing scheduled today, July 18.  Rejuvenate’s target area, which falls into the City of Davenport’s boundaries for its Extreme program, are from West 13th to West 17th streets and south of Locust Street and east of Gaines Street.

 Impacting neighborhoods

“Our renovations are increasing housing values of this neighborhood and that’s the goal,” Ms. Tombergs said.  Among the open house visitors was Ed Winborn, a Rejuvenate board member who lives in the neighborhood. A longtime advocate of stabilizing and re-investing in central Davenport, Mr. Winborn said he’s already met some of other homes’ new owners. “Hopefully we’ll get some young people moving into the neighborhood,” he said.   Mr. Winborn, both a former Scott County Board supervisor and Davenport mayor, also hopes Rejuvenate’s investments will spark others to invest in their properties. “But the problem is a lot of people in the neighborhood are poor and don’t have the money or resources.”    Also touring the renovated house was Bruce Berger, Davenport’s director of community planning and economic development, who worked with the team as it was creating Rejuvenate. “There’s just such a need for revival of older housing in every city,” he told the QCBJ. “The challenge is that usually when it’s in low-income areas (a renovation project) doesn’t pay for itself. It can cost more to fix them up than they’re worth to sell on the backend and as a result there’s few people doing it.”  Ms. Tombergs credits Mr. Berger and the city’s support with helping the startup Rejuvenate push forward. In fact, she said Mr. Berger helped the board identify the owner – a property investor in Colorado – the first abandoned house it purchased and restored.   “His support and belief (and the city’s) in a brand new nonprofit got us to believe in ourselves,” she said.

Overcoming obstacles

While Rejuvenate’s first projects all have centered around the central Davenport neighborhood, Ms. Tombergs said the organization is eyeing growth in the future. “Our goal is to do this all over,” she said, adding that by concentrating on one neighborhood it is helping “create a synergy.”  She added “The more funding we can get, the more we can do. Our goal is to expand to all the Quad Cities.”   Rejuvenate leaders are determined to increase their number of projects and acquisitions, but several discussed the difficulty in identifying property owners.  Mr. Winborn said the issue is not finding homes to take on, “but sometimes the people don’t want to sell or we can’t find out who they are.” In many cases, the owners are out of state “and they set up these shell companies” making it difficult to track down the right person.  To be considered by Rejuvenate, a house needs to have been abandoned at least six months and within the city’s Extreme program boundaries, Ms. Tombergs said.    The problem, she said, is that so many of these properties are rentals owned by out-of-town investors, who may have never even seen the house. “They’re just using it as collateral and that’s why it’s so hard (to acquire). If they could only see what we’re doing, maybe they’d just give it to us,” she said with a smile.