Aug 26, 2025 - News

Polk County supervisors to vote on $1.3 million grant to Beacon Village

Jason Clayworth

Wide view of a small motel with beige and gray buildings under a blue sky with white clouds, surrounded by trees and an empty concrete parking lot with a single car. — A long-vacant hotel near East 14th Street and Euclid Avenue in Des Moines is being redeveloped into Beacon Village. Photo: Courtesy of the Polk County Assessor

Polk County supervisors will vote Tuesday on whether to allocate $1.3 million toward the second phase of Beacon Village, a supportive housing project for women.

Why it matters: The project would increase affordable housing options in the metro and complete the transformation of a long-blighted motel site at East 14th Street and Euclid Avenue — doubling the village's capacity to 64 units.

Catch up quick: The Beacon is a Des Moines nonprofit that provides housing and support for women rebuilding their lives after trauma, including homelessness, addiction, incarceration and domestic violence.

In 2024, it opened the first, $2.1 million phase of Beacon Village, which marked the start of transforming the site's vacant structures with affordable housing.

Zoom in: Women who live there are provided with on-site case management and services such as financial literacy education, job training, mental and behavioral health support, and employment assistance.

Rents generally range from $575 to $750 a month, which is lower than the average price of a studio apartment in DSM, WOI-TV reports.

Driving the news: Polk's contribution would come from a federal grant that was available to local governments during the pandemic.

The city of DSM has preliminarily committed $750,000, Amy Landrigan, The Beacon's CEO, tells Axios.

What's next: Construction of the $2.65 million second phase is expected to begin next year and be completed by early 2027.

Add Axios on Google

Polk County supervisors to vote on $1.3 million grant to Beacon Village

More Des Moines stories