Four months after approving a controversial camping ban affecting homeless people, Des Moines City Council will consider building a designated village for them on the city’s east side.
The council is slated to discuss at its meeting Monday evening whether the city should ask for federal funding for the 43 planned individual shelters. A public notice of the plans states the city would buy units manufactured by Pallet, a for-profit public benefit corporation in Everett, Washington. The box-like structures are made of fiberglass and secured to the ground but movable if needed. They are expected to last at least 20 years.
Pallet has shelters in 29 states and 119 cities, including Denver, Los Angeles and Tampa, Florida. The homes can be built quickly and cheaply, and also have been used as housing for those displaced by disasters like Hurricanes Helene and Milton, ABC news reported.
Des Moines’ village would be one of the few in the Midwest. Madison, Wisconsin, set up 30 shelters in 2022 and has since expanded to two different sites.
A “micro community” of Pallet shelters in Denver, Colorado.
Des Moines’ project would be made up of family units with three people per unit and a separate wing for 18 single people serving “special populations including older adults and LGBTQ adults,” the public notice says. In total, the village would accommodate about 100 people.
The camp would be built on city-owned land at 2501 Maury St. south of East Martin Luther King Drive. Also on the site is the former Chesterfield School building and the Southeast Community Center.
According to the notice, some or all of the buildings may be demolished, depending on a review of their condition. Any remaining structures would be used for office space or supportive services.
If the council votes in favor of the proposal, Des Moines would formally request a $2 million community development block grant funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. The city anticipates two to three months will be needed to build the village once funding is approved and an operating agency is identified.
A public hearing on the proposal will take place Monday at 5:00 during the council meeting at City Hall, 400 Robert D. Ray Drive.
What happened to the tiny homes village?
For years, Des Moines nonprofit Joppa has worked to open a tiny home village for unsheltered people on a 21-acre plot near Des Moines International Airport. A 2021 investigation by the Des Moines Register’s Readers Watchdog raised questions about the group’s finances and operation. But the nonprofit purchased the property last year and is in the process of rezoning it, Kelsey Ritchey, a spokesperson for Joppa, said.
Ritchey said the group hopes to house up to 50 individuals by next winter.
Unlike the city’s project, Joppa is looking to provide permanent housing, but both are key to ending homelessness, Joppa CEO Joe Stevens said in an email.
“Homelessness is a complex issue that requires many partners and organizations to work together,” Stevens said. “All of us are bringing different ideas to the table, and we believe a variety of solutions is necessary.”
Camping ban generated protests
At least 80 people crowded the council chambers and a hallway in September, many to condemn changes to city ordinances that banned sleeping and camping in public places.
The changes, approved 5-2, allow the city to fine people who sleep in public places $15 and require them to remove their belongings from public places within three days. They followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said cities could arrest and fine people who are homeless for sleeping in public spaces.
More: Des Moines quietly worked to clear homeless camps amid business leaders’ safety concerns
Many at the September meeting and July and August council meetings on the issue called the measures cruel, and Polk County Attorney Kimberly Graham and other Iowa elected officials asked the council to reject them.
Polk County-based providers serving homeless people said the county lacks alternatives, including enough shelter space and affordable housing options.
But Mayor Connie Boesen, who voted for the changes, told the Register, “We are going to continue to move forward to help people. That has always been our intention.”
Staff writer F. Amanda Tugade contributed to this article.
Addison Lathers covers growth and development for the Des Moines metro. Reach her at 608-931-1761 and ALathers@registermedia.com, and follow her on X at @addisonlathers.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines City Council may seek funding for homeless village