At Home Forward Iowa, we work a lot with community leaders across the state to support them in their efforts to help those experiencing homelessness in their communities. It’s always exciting to hear from them about the wonderful things they are doing and the progress they are making in improving homelessness in their area, and this week we want to share about the success happening in Ottumwa!

Ottumwa, like much of Iowa, has a lot more homelessness than Iowans expect. Homelessness tends to be more hidden and doesn’t look like it does in bigger cities, which means it is easy to assume it doesn’t exist. In Ottumwa specifically, homelessness tends to present itself in the form of couch surfing or residing in placarded houses that aren’t fit for habitation. There is currently no shelter in the area, and for a long time, there was not much focus on this crisis.

In recent years, however, there have been renewed efforts. Community leaders in Ottumwa are making great strides in attempting to overcome this problem affecting the lives of so many. WYD Inc. is currently creating an emergency shelter that will serve women and children. With a capacity of more than 75, this is a very encouraging step! They also have plans for a winter warming shelter that will serve men and women. In addition to these shelter plans, WYD Inc. continues to provide street outreach services.

As part of the progress Ottumwa is making, they have recently started conducting the Point-in-Time count. Their first participation was the winter count this past January, and they recently completed the summer count in July!

The summer PiT count occurred in many counties across Iowa on July 28. In the days leading up to the count, Ottumwa leaders prepared by putting together care packs, posting flyers in many locations in Ottumwa, sharing about the count on Facebook, and coordinating with social service organizations. Much of this preparation was to raise awareness of the count so that individuals experiencing homelessness would know to stop by on the day of the count. That day, they were set up in two locations, one at a local park and one at the soup kitchen, and they provided food and care packs to those that came.

In the end, community leaders counted and surveyed about 65 people, all of whom were experiencing homelessness that night. Knowing this number is a key step in raising awareness of the problem, which is an essential part of Ottumwa’s efforts to end homelessness in their city. Ottumwa conducted a very successful and well-planned count, and their participation this summer will help them greatly in future counts. We are very proud of the work these leaders are doing in Ottumwa and are excited to follow them as they continue in this work!

A big thank you to Mary Margaret of WYD Inc. for taking the time to talk to us about the work she and others are doing in Ottumwa!

It’s time for another update on how the ESG-CV funds have been used in Iowa! A report covering the most recent quarter, January to March 2021, has just been released, and it shows some great progress in these funds being used to alleviate and prevent homelessness. These ESG-CV funds are special funds allocated in order to address the homelessness crisis brought on by COVID-19. As we’ve talked about in past updates, Home Forward Iowa played a role in determining how the funds were allocated, and we have continued to play a technical assistance role since then.

The goal is to get these funds distributed quickly so that they can help those who need it faster, and this quarter spending has really ramped up. More funds were spent for homelessness prevention, rapid rehousing, and emergency shelter than were spent in the last two quarters combined. As of the end of March 2021, $2,966,712.90 of ESG-CV funds were used in the first quarter of this year, and $4,787,018.21 have been used in total. We expect that as the federal eviction moratorium expires soon – on June 30 – more people will need rental assistance, and the use of these funds may ramp up even more to address this need.

Here are some stats on who is being helped with these funds:

This summer on July 28-29, many Iowa counties are performing a summer Point-in-Time (PiT) Count! We last performed a PiT Count in January, which resulted in getting numbers on homelessness levels for counties where we had never known numbers before. This was great news, since it’s important for us to know the extent of the problem in each county so we can better find solutions. Plus these numbers are used to determine valuable HUD funding!

We are expecting a significant increase in the number of counties participating in the count this summer. Our goal is 40 counties, which almost doubles participation from past summer counts, and we’re very excited for this increased interest! With the difficulties caused by COVID-19 during the last count, the summer count will help supplement some of the data we weren’t able to gather. The summer count will also be great practice for the official winter count next year! There is a lot that community leaders learn through doing the count about how it works best for their community, and lessons learned this summer can be implemented next winter.

The PiT Count this summer is going to look a little different from what it looked like in January. The winter PiT Count was observational in most Iowa counties due to the pandemic, but this summer more Iowa counties are going beyond just counting by also surveying each individual found. This will give us really valuable data about homelessness trends in Iowa. With the influx of rental assistance resources available right now, we also are putting an emphasis on identifying people in the weeks ahead of the count who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness. This will not only make conducting the actual count on July 28 easier, it will also allow us to connect these individuals with resources to help them obtain housing.

It is also the goal in many Iowa counties to give away supply backpacks to individuals we encounter as a thank you for participating in the survey. These supply backpacks will include things like non-perishable snacks, hygiene supplies, socks, and gift cards. This is one area where community leaders in each county will have a large volunteer need. If you would like to help by soliciting donations, donating supplies, or putting together supply backpacks, contact us and we’ll put you in touch with the leader for your county!

Home Forward Iowa’s role in this year’s summer count is largely a technical assistance and support role. We are helping counties plan for the count, training leaders in how to perform the count, and raising awareness of the count.

Part of our role is helping to spread the word about the need for volunteers. Each region will need volunteers to physically conduct the count on the night of July 28, which will include checking out known locations, surveying individuals found experiencing unsheltered homelessness, and giving out supply backpacks. Your participation in this count can make a big difference in the fight against homelessness in Iowa!

To learn more or to sign up to volunteer or donate, contact us at 515-223-7710 or at PointinTime@homeforwardiowa.org.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Iowans are facing housing crises, and in response to this, the Iowa Finance Authority distributed ESG-CV funds to homelessness agencies across Iowa. A second report has just been released about how ESG-CV dollars have been used to help these Iowans. This report covers the most recent quarter, October to December 2020. The use of these ESG-CV funds ramped up greatly this quarter, so we can better see the good that agencies across Iowa are doing with these funds!

ESG-CV funds are special Emergency Solutions Grant funds allocated in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They can be used for Emergency Shelter, Homelessness Prevention, Street Outreach, and Rapid Rehousing. Home Forward Iowa played a role in the allocation of these funds by advocating for distributing them on a regional basis and recruiting agencies to manage these new resources. We have continued to help by providing technical assistance to agencies getting people housed, primarily through Iowa’s homeless coordinated entry system serving 96 of Iowa’s 99 counties.

Check out this breakdown of how $1,324,891.31 of ESG-CV funds were used the last quarter of 2020 in Iowa.

Agencies used this funding to serve 12,276 Iowans, including 3,880 children. 328 of those served were veterans. 52% of those served were female, and 48% were male.

Additionally, these homelessness prevention dollars successfully enabled 499 households who were at risk of homelessness to maintain their housing and 66 households to move into new housing.

It is exciting to see the impact these funds are having on averting crises for Iowans, and we are grateful to be able to play a role in this.