Homeless families hit hotel record in Polk County
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Temporary hotel rooms for families experiencing homelessness through a Polk County emergency program hit a quarterly record in September.
Why it matters: Alternatives are unavailable, and children would be sleeping outside if assistance runs out or is otherwise denied.
- Polk County Supervisors will be asked to consider tripling the $100,000 budget for the assistance next year, Eric Kool, director of Polk County Community, Family and Youth Services, tells Axios.
Catch up quick: Primary Health Care and 2-1-1 Iowa authorize the hotel stays.
- In past years, families typically used rooms for just a few days while looking for other emergency housing.
Yes, but: This year, almost 150 families in the county are on a waiting list for shelter placement.
- Families routinely have to stay for weeks as a result, Kool says.
By the numbers: 172 families were assisted from July to September this year, up almost 140% from the 73 assisted during the same period last year.
- This year's stays accounted for 700 hotel nights, more than double the rate during the same period last year.
Flashback: 90 families were on the waiting list a year ago when Family Promise of Greater Des Moines closed its doors after experiencing a drop in donations.
- It was one of the only homelessness shelter services in the metro that keeps families with children together.
Meanwhile, a pandemic-era rental assistance program recently ran out of funding in Polk County, and Iowa's state government rejected more than $29 million in federal summer food assistance for children.
- On Wednesday, the metro's largest food pantry network, run by the Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC), announced it had reached another record for monthly assistance level in its nearly 50-year history.
- Of the nearly 29,300 people who received food assistance from DMARC last month, almost 11,500 were under 18.
What's next: Supervisors will consider budget adjustments for emergency hotel assistance in the coming months, Kool says.