Willis Dady Homeless Services opens new supportive apartment building in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — Willis Dady Homeless Services is helping some of its most challenged clients get their foot in the door of housing with the opening of a new $3.4 million investment.

The 13-unit Chandler Pump Apartments, a renovation of the 1952 Chandler Pump Company building in northwest Cedar Rapids, will provide permanent supportive housing to clients who experience persistent, chronic homelessness. The new apartments — initially slated for opening in 2021 but delayed by the pandemic and derecho — will bring Cedar Rapids’ total count of permanent supportive housing to 31 units.

“Our vision is to empower clients to break the cycle of homelessness and become self-sufficient. That is a vision, and this is a strategy to get there,” said Amy Reasner, vice president of Willis Dady’s board of directors.

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The long-term housing, not far from downtown Cedar Rapids’ concentration of services and adjacent to Willis Dady’s Day Center at 800 First Ave. NW, will provide a greater chance at success to a growing portion of the unsheltered population that is the most difficult to house. With furnished efficiency, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, the clients’ rent will be affordable: 30 percent of their income, no matter what they make.

But weekly, on-site case management and regular meetings — the real key to success with permanent supportive housing — will help clients reach long-term goals by keeping them in constant contact with the resources they need to get back on their feet.

Crystal Carter, a former street outreach case manager at Willis Dady, will assume a new role in managing the apartment building. Carter, who was previously homeless, will use her lived experience to inform case management — meeting clients where they’re at to slowly help them work on big-picture goals.

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“I just want to let them know that it is going to be an adjustment period — moving from homelessness to housing,” she said. “It’s about making sure they’re doing it for themselves, with my help.”

As the number of unsheltered people in Linn County continues to rise, advocates have stressed the need for permanent supportive housing — an alternative to traditional rental units — to meet the needs of a chronically homeless population often unable to qualify for an apartment or live in one without case management.

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After living outdoors for months or years, chronic homelessness often causes mental and emotional trauma that makes it difficult to adjust to living under a roof again.

“When I was a case manager and we opened our first supportive housing unit, I remember that one of the tenants slept on the front porch for the first two weeks,” said Alicia Faust, executive director of Willis Dady. “He had his own room and his own bed, but he had been outside for seven years. It was so overwhelming to sleep in a bed and a home that he pulled his bed onto the porch for two weeks.”

While the 13 new units will have a positive impact, she said Cedar Rapids urgently needs more. In an ideal world, she said the city would have 100 to 150 units of supportive housing like this — four to five times what the city has now.

“We have almost triple the referrals for the number units we have,” Faust said. “That is a forgotten demographic in our society.”

The project and funding

Chandler Pump Apartments, first conceived in 2019, went through three iterations of design before coming to fruition. The initial cost, before the derecho of August 2020 destroyed the second floor of the building, was estimated at $2.9 million.

The original plan for the then-two story building was to put Willis Dady offices on the first floor, and apartments on the second floor. After the pandemic sent many employees to work from home, Willis Dady purchased the neighboring McLanahan Corporation building for offices and its day center.

“There are not many apartments of that quality in this city that can give people a new start,” said Scott Olson, project lead. “What I’m so proud of was we had people who stood with us and said we can do it in a different way.”

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With more than 7,000 square-feet, the building offers free on-site laundry, mailboxes, kitchens and bathrooms. Two-bedroom units may be used for families or split with roommates.

Operating expenses for the building are budgeted through the end of this year. In January 2025, Willis Dady anticipates more funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to cover operating expenses.

In its first few years, the new building’s case management will be funded by the Mercy Health Equity Fund and a contract with the Iowa Balance of State Continuum of Care.

Faust said securing funding for ongoing supportive services is a large barrier to building more apartments like this. Federal funding often comes with red tape — such as restrictions on a tenant’s rental history or criminal history — that impedes the population served by these projects.

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But studies show that housing chronically homeless clients in supportive housing units is dramatically cheaper than the alternative. A 2019 Familiar Faces Report found that those experiencing persistent homelessness cost communities an average of $5,017 per month in local community services. When in stable housing, the average service equivalent costs decreased to $263 per person.

The average residency for clients in their other supportive housing units is 18 to 24 months.

“This is our dream, and this is why we’re here today,” said Aaron Amundson, director of development.

Comments: (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.