24-unit apartment building made of shipping containers will provide permanent housing for Des Moines' homeless

Kim Norvell
The Des Moines Register

The homeless shelter in downtown Des Moines is building a 24-unit apartment building for the chronically homeless to have permanent, affordable housing. 

Central Iowa Shelter and Services was recently awarded $2.7 million from the National Housing Trust Fund program and the Iowa Finance Authority to complete the project.

It will be located in the water retention basin just south of the shelter, 1420 Mulberry St., where homeless have frequently set up tents

"This puts us on track to, if not end it, make a massive dent to helping individuals who are consistently homeless find permanent housing," said Central Iowa Shelter and Services executive director Melissa O'Neil. "We're very excited. We wish we already had the 24 units."

Proposed 24 units of housing for the homeless made from shipping containers by FEH Design.

The apartment building — made out of shipping containers — will consist of furnished studios at about 250-square-feet each. It will be built on stilts to allow water to fill up below if the retention basin fills up during a flood, O'Neil said.

The apartments are reserved for the homeless who have completed CISS' housing program that teaches residents how to be good tenants. They live on the shelter's second floor and, when completed, earn Section 8 housing vouchers to use in Des Moines apartments that accept them. 

But it's been difficult for those who have graduated from the program to find affordable housing in Des Moines, specifically downtown, O'Neil said. So they stay in CISS' 38 apartments, leaving little to no room for the 70 homeless on the waiting list to move in and graduate from the program. 

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Eighteen of the units in the new apartment building will serve as housing for tenants who have earned their vouchers. The remaining six units will be used for tenants going through the program. 

"These 24 units for us, this is housing for the hardest of the hard. These are individuals who maybe have a previous eviction or a criminal background," O'Neil said. "Because it's us that's running them, it really breaks down all those barriers to finding safe, affordable housing."

People living in the new apartments will have access to case management; behavioral health specialists; dental, health care and substance abuse services; life skills support; job training programs; an emergency food pantry; clothing closet and three meals per day served at the existing shelter. 

An example of the furnished studio apartments Central Iowa Shelter and Services is building in downtown Des Moines.

In November 2017, dozens of the metro's chronically homeless — who traditionally set up camp in undeveloped, out-of-sight areas — had moved onto a slice of city property within 100 feet of the main shelter. That's when CISS began looking for ways to find more permanent housing for the homeless. 

There were 681 homeless living in Polk County as of Feb. 6, 2019, according to the Institute for Community Alliances. Ninety-two were unsheltered. 

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"This funding will allow Central Iowa Shelter & Services to support homeless individuals in their transition from homelessness to independence," said Iowa Finance Authority Executive Director Debi Durham in a news release. "We're proud to partner on the construction of these rental homes that will soon help to transform the lives of many central Iowans."

The project will cost $4.3 million. Des Moines and Polk County each gave $400,000 to the project, and MidAmerican Energy donated $623,000.

CISS expects to break ground by the end of the year, and open the building in November 2020.

Kim Norvell covers growth and development for the Register. Reach her at knorvell@dmreg.com or 515-284-8259.

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