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.
