DES MOINES, Iowa — Organizations that work with the homeless are sharing their thoughts on what the controversial Des Moines camping ban should look like in its final form.
Under the proposed ordinance, anyone sleeping in a public space would need to pay a $50 fine or complete community service. At Monday night’s Des Moines City Council meeting councilman Mike Simonson made it clear that a camping ban will be approved and take effect.
“This ordinance is going to pass,” he said at the meeting.
At the meeting the ordinance advanced on a second reading, but will still need a third reading to take effect. When that third reading will take place is unclear at this time.
“It’s going to take a concerted effort to solve the issue of why we have so many homeless in our community,” councilman Simonson said.
But before the ban is enforced, the council gave the city manager seven directives to look into. These include establishing an agreement with an animal shelter to keep homeless people’s pets and finding a place for them to store their belongings.
“Our hope is that the city will be able to make progress and identify the resources and the capabilities to follow through on those things as this stricter ordinance is enacted,” Kathy Coady, the chief development director for Hope Ministries, said.
Coady works with homeless Iowans through Hope Ministries and believes it will take some time to end homelessness, which is the goal of the camping ban.
“It's a person by person process, and so again, it's not going to be a quick fix,” Coady said.
Angie Arthur serves as the executive director of Homeward Iowa, a planning organization that works with community partners to come up with solutions to reduce homelessness. She wants to see the City of Des Moines prioritize increasing the number of affordable housing options.
“We need to have those conversations about expanding affordable and accessible housing and other resources,” Arthur said.
At Monday night’s council meeting, councilman Josh Mandelbaum suggested creating a fund for the homeless to have a down payment on an apartment.
“We are definitely in support of different funding options, such as prevention dollars, as well as diversion funds that would help folks quickly exit homelessness,” Arthur said.
A representative from Iowa Homeless Youth Centers wasn’t available to go on camera, but said they want to make sure homeless people aren’t being criminalized under the final version of the camping ban ordinance.
Homeward Iowa works on the biannual point in time count, which measures the number of homeless people in Polk County. The city will be using that count as a way to track the effectiveness of the camping ban.