POLK COUNTY, Iowa — Afghan refugees finding their own way in central Iowa will soon have new beds to sleep on thanks to the Polk County Board of Supervisors.
The board bought 300 beds, totaling more than $43,000, to disperse to three different organizations that are helping refugees settle. Those organizations are Lutheran Services of Iowa, Catholic Charities and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
"With the fall of the Afghan government in August in our resettlement agencies have been receiving updates regularly from the National Office of Refugee Resettlement in terms of what things are gonna look like for each local agency," said Stephanie Morris, the director of the Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa. "And then have been responding to needs as they come up and we expect things will probably change, you know, still in the future as we receive more families."
Polk County says the nonprofits are expecting 575 Afghan refugees to call the county home in the next year.
Meanwhile, the Iowa Department of Human Services says it's expecting as many as 1,000 refugees to resettle in the state. That's up from its previous estimate of 695.
DHS says as of this week, Iowa agencies have resettled nearly 500 Afghan refugees in the state.
WATCH | Iowa resettlement programs laying groundwork to accept Afghan refugees