POLK COUNTY, Iowa — A new report from Des Moines-based nonprofit Homeward looked into the state of homelessness in Polk County and how the county can better serve its most vulnerable.
Homeward works with elected officials and service providers to address homelessness.
According to its report, 7,940 people are homeless in Polk County this year, up from about 7,200 last year.
“Before the pandemic, we were seeing some declines in homelessness,” Homeward executive director Angie Arthur said. “Since the pandemic, we've been seeing more increases in homelessness.”
Arthur said the main reason for that increase is a lack of affordable housing options.
“For every 100 households of extremely low income individuals in Polk County, there are 23 accessible and affordable units,” Arthur said.
The report also identified three recommendations to improve Polk County’s response to homelessness:
- More affordable housing for extremely low income people
- At least 29 more emergency shelter units
- More case management for the homeless
Homeward worked with Housing Innovations, an Ohio-based research firm, on identifying these three recommendations.
“For those folks that are single individuals experiencing homelessness, we need an additional 523 units of permanent supportive housing and 333 units of rapid rehousing or rental assistance type housing,” Arthur said.
In another startling statistic from the study, the number of seniors, or people over 60 experiencing homelessness in Polk County, is also on the rise.
“We're actually seeing an increase of seniors that are experiencing homelessness,” Arthur said. “That's approximately little over 9% in our community.”
Homeward will now be working on a five year strategic plan on how to end homelessness, which is supposed to be released early next year.