Progress has been made, but challenges remain in addressing Linn County homelessness

CEDAR RAPIDS — Sometimes, the solutions to big problems start small.

That’s been one of the key takeaways from the first few meetings of the Lived Experience Advisory Council, or LEAC, a group of currently or formerly unhoused people working together to make recommendations on how best to address homelessness in Linn County.

The group began its twice-monthly meetings in March, and facilitator J’nae Peterman said one of the first things discussed were common barriers preventing unhoused individuals from accessing community services.

The list was varied, but Peterman said one early theme stuck out: Stuff, or more accurately, what to do with it.

Members pointed out that connecting with services requires in-person meetings or appointments with the relevant agency, but doing so when unhoused can mean either risking leaving your belongings without supervision or having to pack them all up to carry with you.

“If you think about you and me, we (accidentally) leave our houses unlocked and … we’re panicking all day,” said Peterman, homeless systems manager at the Housing Trust Fund for Linn County. It’s that same concern “when you have to leave all your stuff behind.”

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It’s a basic logistics problem, Peterman said, but one with broad-reaching implications for those most affected. To tackle the issue, LEAC members recommended going back to basics — lockers.

Using a portion of the previously-awarded $100,000 from the Iowa Finance Authority, the council is currently working with a company out of Spokane, Wash., to acquire 50 lockers for community use.

Each locker will use a biometric security system that will sync up to an assigned users’ thumbprint — eliminating the need to remember a code or carry a key — to offer space to securely store backpacks, blankets and other personal belongings.

The goal is to install the lockers by the end of this year, and each will carry the LEAC logo to spread awareness of the peer-led group. Lockers will be monitored and policies created to ensure responsible usage.

“It’s something we’re pretty excited about,” Peterman said. “It’s going to be a safe way to do the things they need to do throughout the day (while having) at least some sense of security” that their possessions are safe.

Peterman’s role as homeless services manager is the result of a three-year collaboration between the city of Cedar Rapids and Linn County to jointly fund the position. She assumed the role last year at the East Central Iowa Council of Governments’s Housing Trust Fund for Linn County division.

Housing insecurity remains a complex issue with myriad underlying causes and challenges, but Peterman said evidence is mounting that ongoing collaborations and newly established initiatives like the Lived Experience Advisory Council are starting to make a difference.

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Annual count shows declines in unsheltered homelessness

Homelessness has been present in Linn County for decades, but numbers really started to rise during the COVID-19 pandemic with record highs being subsequently recorded in 2021, 2022 and 2023 when it came to the number of people sleeping outside.

The number of people sleeping outdoors declined this summer for the second year in a row, however, according to semiannual counts conducted by area homeless service agencies such as Willis Dady Homeless Services and Waypoint Services.

Those counts — called Point in Time or PIT counts — are conducted once each January and July to offer a sort of “snapshot” of the local homeless population and on the utilization rate of the shelter resources.

This July, PIT volunteers found 58 people sleeping outdoors on the night of the count — down from the 111 people recorded last summer and from the record high of the 121 people identified in July of 2023.

PIT counts only record numbers from a single night and can therefore face difficulty in accounting for the transitory nature or homelessness that contribute to population fluctuations between one night and the next.

Still, Peterman said the year-over-year decline points to positive results from ongoing community intervention efforts such as the Coordinated Entry Street Outreach Team that launched this spring.

In 2023, the Washington, D.C.-based National Alliance to End Homelessness worked with area elected officials, service providers and other key stakeholders to form a list of recommendations that included, among other topics, a reimagination of the coordinated entry system.

The Coordinated Entry Street Outreach team aims to meet that goal with staff from multiple area service agencies specializing in housing, mental health, physical health and/or substance use working together to connect unhoused individuals with available resources.

A large part of the team’s focus is on relationship- and trust-building, both of which are key to the successful promotion of services. The team also keeps a list of people known to be unsheltered to track where they are staying, what services they are connected with and which they’re still in need of.

“Just yesterday, there was someone who I didn’t know and I went up and talked to them and introduced myself,” said Katelyn Darden, who conducts street outreach for the team on behalf of Waypoint. “It’s all about letting them know about resources and getting them connected.”

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Lived Experience Council presents ‘huge opportunity’

The Lived Experience Advisory Council is another offshoot of the National Alliance to End Homelessness recommendations.

All seven members are either currently unhoused or have experienced homelessness in the past. The group meets twice each month and they are compensated for their time with free meals and gift cards.

At each meeting, the group tackles a variety of topics related to homelessness.

Already, members have designed quick-reference resource pamphlets for distribution to unhoused individuals and provided feedback to faith organizations on current community meal sites and schedules.

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Different people “come and ask us questions like ‘What can we do to help make things better for you?’” said LEAC member Jill Hemann. “So that’s kind of a nice thing to have them come in and ask us what they can do instead of saying ‘This is what it’s going to be.’”

Hemann is the council’s newest member and also program manager at Green Square Meals, a nonprofit that provides free evening meals Monday through Friday for individuals experiencing homelessness and/or food insecurity.

She’s worked at the organization for 15 years, earning her the nickname “Mama Jill” among many of the meal site’s regulars. She also has personal experience with homelessness after having spent a stint in her teenage years sleeping in her car.

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That was back in the ‘80s, but Hemann said she can still remember the frustration and fear that accompanied the situation and the difficult reality of navigating what resources were and weren’t available to her and her infant child.

“I would get very irritated because the services were different back then,” she said. “They had food pantries and stuff like that, but they didn’t have the shelters” or the different agency supports that exist today.

Hemann was able to secure stable housing after reaching out to “everybody and anybody” she could think of for help, and she later relocated to Iowa. Once settled, she quickly went about finding ways to help those experiencing homelessness locally, which eventually led her to Green Square Meals.

Now, she hopes to use her own experience with homelessness alongside her long-running relationships with those who are unhoused in Cedar Rapids to support the work of the Lived Experience Advisory Council.

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Alicia Faust, executive director at Willis Dady Homeless Services in Cedar Rapids, called the council a “huge opportunity” for organizations like hers to seek feedback on the agency’s services from those who are most affected.

Faust said she approached the group this summer as part of an effort to revise the Willis Dady shelter policies to promote improved outcomes. She spoke with the group prior to the revision process and returned later with a draft change.

She said the council “didn’t hold back” in highlighting potential pitfalls in her proposal, and she was able to use that feedback for another revision that ultimately received the group’s stamp of approval.

“It’s been really beneficial and a really humbling experience for me and I think for all of our staff to see,” said Faust, who intends to return to the council this fall for feedback on some staff training protocols. “It’s really given us a huge opportunity that a lot of communities don’t have.”

Despite progress, challenges remain

Despite the progress of ongoing and emerging initiatives, however, several challenges remain in the effort to address homelessness.

Ultimately, housing is the only true solution to homelessness, but communities like Cedar Rapids are facing a shortage in the housing stock across all levels with a particular squeeze on affordable and/or income-restricted units.

That can make it hard for someone facing homelessness to find and afford an open unit — particularly if they have other barriers to housing such as past evictions or criminal histories.

One program that aims to ease those barriers is the Landlord Tenant Success Initiative, a pilot program that aims to connect 30 individuals who might otherwise have problems securing a unit with a 12-month lease.

Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust donated $100,000 to fund the program, which is being used to offer a $1,000 cash incentive to landlords who accept the tenants and for a risk-mitigation fund to cover any additional charges that a landlord could incur because of that tenant.

Seventeen people have been housed through the program since it launched last November, and to date all have passed their in-unit inspections and avoided having any uncured lease violations.

But one program alone can’t solve the housing shortage, even when paired with other public and private projects already working toward the same goal.

As a result, gaps remain in the system meant to provide people with access to quality, affordable housing, and the same is true for the community supports that make maintaining housing possible such as educational opportunities, job skill training and mental health services.

“I’ve been told that we’re one of the cities that has the most resources (for people experiencing homelessness), but those resources are running thin,” Hemann said. “It can be hard to keep up.”

And in the fight against homelessness, Peterman said advocates are also battling rapidly evolving public policy and public opinion often shaped by incomplete or inaccurate information.

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When she mentions declines in unsheltered homelessness recorded in recent PIT counts, for example, the most common response is skepticism.

“People give me a look like ‘You’re crazy,’” she said.

She attributed that reaction, in part, to the increased visibility of homelessness concentrated in certain areas that leave outsized impressions in people’s minds of the true scope of the issue and the ongoing social stigma around homelessness that can further color that perception.

Changing federal priorities have also led to enacted or proposed reductions in certain funding sources previously earmarked for homelessness intervention and prevention, sowing further concern among advocates and community members alike.

Advocates look for proactive solutions

To address those challenges and prepare for any new ones that may arise, local organizations are looking to leverage proactive, community-based solutions with a focus on early intervention, rapid rehousing and wraparound services.

Earlier this month, Iowa Legal Aid — which provides free legal assistance to low-income Iowans with a focus on civil law — received $90,000 in state funding to expand the kinds of services offered at its eviction help desks.

The organization already operates six “eviction diversion help desks” at or near courthouses across the state, including one in Linn County and another in Johnson County. At those desks, people facing eviction can seek legal advice and/or assistance from Iowa Legal Aid attorneys.

Since its inception, the program has helped more than 60,000 people avoid eviction and remain in their homes, and with the $90,000 received from the state, the organization hopes to maximize that impact by integrating expungement services into the help desk catalog.

“The demand for expungement services are incredibly high, and the connection between that service and housing issues … is incredibly strong,” said Nick Smithberg, executive director at Iowa Legal Aid. It can “open up pathways to housing (and) employment.”

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Certain criminal offenses are eligible for expungement in Iowa — meaning the court record will be sealed and it will no longer be visible to the public. Expungement is only available for certain misdemeanor convictions and cases where an individual was found not guilty or all charges were dismissed.

There are additional eligibility requirements as well depending on the type of charge to be expunged, but since those with criminal records are at higher risk of homelessness Smithberg said the process is often worth it for the significant impact it can have on someone’s ability to find and secure housing.

Iowa Legal Aid intends to use the newly-awarded state funds staffing to integrate expungement services into its help desk offerings within the next year. Help desk visitors will be asked about their criminal record and be immediately connected with expungement resources offered through Iowa Legal Aid, if applicable.

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On the other end of the spectrum, still more programs are emerging to assist those already experiencing homelessness find stable and secure housing.

The city of Cedar Rapids in July approved an agreement between the city and the Housing Fund for Linn County, for example, to support the operation of the Community Care Team and Margaret Bock Housing Collaborative Pilot Program.

The program aims to assist individuals who are experiencing homelessness to provide supportive housing solutions by transitioning the existing Margaret Bock Housing — which provides low-income, affordable housing — into a more robust supportive housing program with wraparound services.

“Those units are really the perfect size to help individuals who struggle with homelessness kind of relearn what it means to live indoors again and to have that sense of security when they’re connecting to different resources,” Peterman said.

Per the agreement, the city will allocate up to $104,000 annually toward the program for three years using funds from the city’s homeless management services budget. Since July, members of the community care team have worked to promote the program and six people have been enrolled.

That update and others were outlined last week during a public presentation from Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt on the City Council’s priorities for the year ahead.

In that presentation, Pratt highlighted several existing and emerging initiatives while stressing the importance of community outreach and education.

“We are constantly messaging that the individuals experiencing homelessness are our friends, family and neighbors,” Pratt said. “Continuing to collaborate with Linn County and with our local nonprofits to make measurable improvements in our community remains a priority for the year to come.“

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