(Radio Iowa) – Some of the temporary trailers FEMA set up in Spencer to house people who were flooded out of their homes in mid-2024 were occupied for nearly a year and a half. Spencer City Manager Kevin Robinson says this fall, there were about a dozen individuals who living in the trailers — but the last occupant was able to move into other housing Monday of this week.

“Sixty-five percent of our rental market was impacted by the disaster,” Robinson says. “Most of those rental units, whether they were single-family homes or apartments that were repaired, if they were renting for $650 before the flood they were somewhere closer to $900, $950 after the flood.” The FEMA trailers arrived in Spencer on September 24th of 2024 and a FEMA spokesperson says they will be removed by the end of this month. Two temporary housing sites were set up in Spencer following the flooding in June of 2024.

The FEMA trailers have been in a commercial area on the north side of Spencer. The State of Iowa set up a separate site, near the Clay County Fairgrounds and Robinson estimates at one point as many as 100 people who couldn’t find or afford housing were staying there.

“If they had not found permanent housing when the winter of 2024 hit, they were transitioned into hotels and motels and through last winter they were transitioned out into permanent housing,” Robinson says. At one point, 44 households were living in the FEMA trailers in Spencer. A FEMA spokesperson says the trailers will be put up for auction rather than moved to house storm victims in other parts of the country.