National Alliance to End Homelessness works with Cedar Rapids organizations to design ‘housing first’ approach

CEDAR RAPIDS — A national organization that serves as the leading voice on homelessness is working with Cedar Rapids stakeholders to provide a “starting point” to improve systems to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness in Linn County.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, based in Washington, D.C., last week held a two-day clinic, June 21-22, in Cedar Rapids with city and Linn County elected officials, service providers and other key stakeholders who are engaged with those experiencing homelessness locally.

City Housing Services Manager Sara Buck said the top three recommendations that emerged from the organization’s work in Cedar Rapids were to:

Buck said the clinic included directors of different service provider agencies, the Cedar Rapids Police Department, medical providers, the supervisors, council members and funders such as the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation and East Central Iowa Council of Governments, among others.

The goal is to have a “housing first” approach that prioritizes moving people out of shelter quickly and into permanent housing with proper supportive services to set them up for success.

“What we need to do is move toward working as one clock where each agency is working as a gear in the clock,” Buck said.

The council last year awarded $22,750 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to bring in the National Alliance to End Homelessness to evaluate existing services and make recommendations. Both the council and Linn County supervisors have identified homelessness as a top priority to address.

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Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt said the clinic essentially was the starting point for larger community conversations and will help strategize how local officials and service providers can come together to address homelessness — whether that’s public-private partnerships or other collaborative community endeavors.

Before the National Alliance to End Homelessness team conducted the clinic, Mary Frances Kenion, vice president for training and technical assistance, said organization staff visited Cedar Rapids in May to engage with service providers and with people in Cedar Rapids experiencing homelessness.

“That is a core value of ours,” Kenion said. “We believe that systems when you're thinking about redesigning them or reimagining them, you should really center those who are closest to the solutions and those are folks with lived experience of homelessness.”

She said the organization aims to partner alongside communities and the people on the ground there, treating them as the experts because they have actually experienced and navigated the local systems.

Pratt said this approach aligns well with Cedar Rapids’ public input processes.

“You really get that 360 (degree) viewpoint of the issues,” Pratt said. “There are so many layers of things that need to be addressed, so we really appreciate that openness. And we keep trying to get people excited because we do feel like this is the beginning of addressing issues.”

Much of the work on homelessness tends to focus on larger cities where homelessness is highly visible, Kenion said, but engaging with smaller communities allows the organization to strengthen its network and information base.

“What we learn from your community and other communities like yours really influences the evidence-based practices that are central to our mission, but also the research work that we do and the policies that we advocate for and the programs as well,” Kenion said.

Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said while Linn County’s homeless population may not be as high as larger metropolitan areas, any number of homeless people is too many. She said she hoped this effort would help get to the root of the problem early enough before the population of people experiencing homelessness grows further.

In July 2020, the count of unsheltered homeless people in Linn County was 33, which tripled to 107 in July 2022. A count of unsheltered people in January of this year found 30 — a new Linn County record. The previous winter, the unsheltered count for Linn County was 19 people.

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“Everybody deserves a good quality of life in this city — everybody,” O’Donnell said. “ … I appreciate this as a first step because we don’t want to leave people behind.”

Council member Ann Poe, who was among the council members who participated in the clinic, said she is hopeful this is a starting point for putting a plan together to address homelessness in a way that meets people where they are.

“I was happy to have the opportunity to flip my thinking,” Poe said. “I originally thought that all we had to do was provide services (such as mental health and substance use services). I didn’t think that just by providing housing we could fix this problem … it was so clear that we have to stabilize our community, our people, our friends, our neighbors — get them into housing then put those wraparound services around them.”

During the supervisors’ Monday work session, Linn County Supervisor Ben Rogers said it was insightful to have national experts come in and examine local data and systems.

“If you can get people safely housed and get those wraparound services, they can become a lot more successful,” Rogers said.

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com