Lawmakers table bill that would have criminalized unsheltered homelessness in Iowa

DES MOINES — State lawmakers Tuesday considered but ultimately tabled legislation passed in other Republican-led states that would criminalize homelessness and redirect state funding toward state-sanctioned encampments.

Senate Study Bill 3175 mirrors legislation being pushed in states across the country by The Cicero Institute, an Austin-based conservative think tank. Lawmakers in Oklahoma, Arizona, Georgia, Missouri and Wisconsin have advanced or are considering similar proposals.

The bill, which failed to meet a legislative deadline to pass out of committee, would have diverted state and federal funding from permanent supportive housing toward designated camping areas that provide mental health and substance use disorder services, bathrooms, security and other resources for people experiencing homelessness.

Unsheltered homelessness — those sleeping on the streets, in parks, in cars or in abandoned buildings — has risen sharply over the last 10 years, and at a faster rate than homelessness overall.

Since July 2017, the number of people sleeping in places not meant for habitation has quadrupled in Linn County, according to summer “Point in Time” counts conducted by volunteers from Willis Dady Homeless Services and Waypoint in Cedar Rapids. In July 2023, the count was 123.

The number started to sharply increase after 2019.

Johnson County saw a marked increase in the count of those sleeping outdoors for the first time in several years through its annual winter counts. After several years of a relatively stable winter count, Shelter House volunteers in Iowa City found 23 people living outdoors last month — an increase from 13 last year.

Winter Point in Time counts, when emergency shelters are utilized more heavily to avoid bitter temperatures, tend to be lower than summer counts.

As homeless encampments have become increasingly visible in recent years, states and cities have turned to solutions such as rental assistance, temporary shelters and outreach teams to connect homeless people to mental health and substance use services.

A number of cities, including Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Denver, Colorado, have turned to the idea of sanctioned encampments, or legalized campsites — designated areas where unhoused individuals can live outside. The areas come with varying degrees of public services like bathrooms, power outlets, medical care and on-site case management.

In December 2022, the city of Cedar Rapids razed a homeless encampment near the Cedar River that had been home to dozens for about nine months — one of the largest encampments advocates with experience recalled seeing in the city. Since then, advocates have noted that much of the homeless population chronically living outdoors has scattered farther from the city center.

The bill introduced this week would have allowed cities and counties to use state funds to establish homeless encampments on public property, and would prohibit sleeping, camping or erecting a shelter on public property outside of official sites.

Unhoused individuals would be issued a warning and offered services or shelter. Those who refuse would be charged with a simple misdemeanor punishable by up 30 days in jail and a fine of $105 to $855. The bill also would have allowed Iowa’s attorney general to sue local governments that don’t enforce the ban.

A federal appeals court has ruled people experiencing homelessness can’t be punished for sleeping outside on public property if there are no adequate alternatives available.

The Senate bill also would have penalized local communities and nonprofits that have adopted a "Housing First“ model — which prioritizes permanent, affordable housing as a solution to homelessness — instead redirecting existing state and federal funds toward short-term shelters and sanctioned encampment sites with services.

The bill would have changed the way the Iowa Finance Authority administers grant dollars to cities, counties and nonprofits that aim to alleviate homelessness by creating “pay for performance” requirements for the grants.

Under that setup, IFA would use up to 25 percent of funds otherwise used for the construction of permanent housing to pay for local substance use disorder and mental health treatment, and other services, including short-term housing, for homeless individuals.

To receive payment, nonprofits and localities would have to show they have lowered the number of days the homeless spend incarcerated, hospitalized, or on the streets.

Any city with a per capita population of homeless individuals higher than the statewide average would be ineligible for some state grants until the number is reduced.

A representative with Cicero Institute, the Texas-based policy nonprofit, said cities should be held accountable for moving homeless individuals off the streets quickly.

Jakob Dupuis, a policy analyst with the institute, told lawmakers that leaving tens of thousands of Americans — often with severe mental illness or substance use problems — on the streets for decades until they can all be provided with permanent, supportive housing is not a viable or humane solution. Instead, he said states should fund short-term shelter options and crisis response over long-term subsidized “Housing First” models without any mandate for treatment, sobriety or work requirements.

“The needs of Iowa’s homeless have changed, and the solutions of a decade ago are not equipped to handle this current crisis,” Dupuis said.

But critics say it punishes nonprofits for their work and criminalizes a vulnerable population.

A coalition of government and nonprofit stakeholders focused on homelessness, who are registered opposed to the bill, said the bill ignores the primary driver of homelessness: the severe shortage of housing affordable to the lowest-income and most marginalized people.

“We need to make sure we provide these opportunities for them to get equity, grow their lives and get homes,” said Jon Murphy with the Iowa Housing Trust Funds Advocates Network. “ … More money into the housing trust funds would be a better way to address homelessness going forward.”

Angie Arthur is executive director of Homeward, Polk County’s homelessness planning organization. Arthur said “Housing First” is an evidence-based practice backed by multiple, national studies that show that it is the most effective approach to ending homelessness for most individuals and families.

“The true challenge in homelessness is the rising cost of rent (and) the lack of housing people can afford,” she said. “ … The bill places more barriers between Iowans and the housing they need and desperately want. Providing shelter is a crisis response. It’s not a permanent solution.”

Sen. Jesse Green, a Republican from Boone County who chairs the Senate Local Government Committee, said the homeless bill was a victim of funnel week timing.

“It just came out of drafting Thursday, and there are so many moving parts. I didn't want to force my committee to take it up (in a hurry),” he said.

Elijah Decious and Erin Murphy of The Gazette contributed to this report.

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