Child poverty among metro's most critical challenges

An annual community report released by United Way of Central Iowa last week shows hundreds of kids in some metro neighborhoods experienced homelessness as of the start of the school year.

Why it matters: That's only one of nearly two dozen troubling data points highlighted by the group.

• Evictions were up last year compared to 2021, child care availability was down and a third of adults in need of mental health treatment were unable to receive care, according to the report.

Catch up fast: United Way announced "United to Thrive" two years ago, a new focus intended to better respond to community needs.

• The group uses five elements to track inequities — education, early childhood development, economic opportunity, health and essential needs.
• The annual report highlights some of the most critical challenges.

Zoom in: Citing eviction data from Iowa Legal Aid, the report shows that affordable housing continues to be one of our state's biggest problems.

• There were 18,330 Iowa evictions in 2022, a record that followed several years of lower rates associated with federal pandemic assistance, Iowa Public Radio reports.

Meanwhile, students experiencing homelessness is "perhaps most concerning" with children of color disproportionately affected, United Way CEO Mary Sellers said during an event where the report was unveiled last week.

Context: There are more than 6,000 homeless students in the state, according to the Iowa Department of Education.

• Most live with another family but hundreds are in shelters or live in places like cars and abandoned buildings.

What they're saying: Many of the problems are interconnected, Sellers says.

• The report is intended to inform and "marshal forces to take these things on," a United Way spokesperson tells Axios.

Between the lines: There's "a whole constellation" of recent changes making  being poor more difficult, Eric Burmeister, director of the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, tells Axios.

• Reductions in food assistance and Iowa's rejection of federal assistance are among them, he notes.
• “It's going to take a change from almost vilification of poor people from our political leadership to one of empathy," he says.

The big picture: The metro's problems are not isolated.

• National homelessness rates last year, for example, increased 6% from a low in 2016, according to a federal assessment.

Of note: United Way of Central Iowa collaborates with dozens of other charities in Polk, Dallas and Warren counties.

• It allocated about $20 million in contributions and grants during the tax year that ended in June 2022, according to the group's latest federal tax filing.

Read the report