A good start for helping the unhoused in Cedar Rapids

Renewed efforts in Cedar Rapids to address homelessness are off to a good start. Innovative ideas and pilot programs are showing encouraging outcomes.

The Lived Experience Advisory Council, made up of current and formerly unhoused people, is making recommendations about problems faced by people experiencing homelessness.

Its members discussed barriers that keep unhoused people from accessing services. One problem is that they lack a secure place to store their belongings, which makes it challenging to attend in-person appointments and navigate the risk of losing their belongings and the hassle of bringing everything along.

So, using a portion of $100,000 awarded by the Iowa Finance Authority, the council is working with a company to provide 50 lockers for community use. Instead of a key or code, the lockers will have a biometric sensor that can read a thumbprint. The council wants to install the lockers by the end of the year.

Without the Lived Experience Advisory Council, local leaders may not have known about such a fundamental difficulty faced by people experiencing homelessness.

According to this July’s Point in Time counts declined for the second summer in a row after setting records in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The count found 58 people sleeping outdoors in July, compared with a record high of 121 people in 2023 and 111 last year.

The decline is being credited to the Coordinated Entry Street Outreach Team that went to work in the spring. The team is one of the initiatives created by working with the Washington, D.C.-based National Alliance to End Homelessness.

The team collaborates with multiple service providers to address mental health, housing, and physical health, helping unhoused individuals access the services they need and build trust.

“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, according to reporting by The Gazette’s Grace Nieland. “It’s all about letting them know about resources and getting them connected.”

A declining count is good news. But it is a one-night snapshot. Summer numbers could vary because unhoused people tend to be more dispersed. Hard work still is needed to find housing in a city with a shortage of affordable housing.

The Landlord Tenant Success Initiative is designed to help 30 people who can’t secure housing receive a unit with a 12-month lease. Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust donated $100,000 for the program, giving landlords a $1,000 bonus for participating and providing a mitigation fund that can be tapped to cover other costs for landlords. The city of Cedar Rapids has pledged up to $104,000 annually for three years.

The results of the Landlord Tenant program are encouraging. So far, 17 people have been housed through the program. But it's a pilot program, and ongoing funding needs to be identified.

Overall, the renewed push to address homelessness is making progress. It’s tackling a complex issue while listening to unhoused people and treating them with dignity. We have high hopes, tempered by the hard work ahead.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com