Compassion vs. City Code: Des Moines couple stuck with $1,100 bill after failing to remove homeless from property

DES MOINES, Iowa — It’s a 65-acre patch of green goodness, with a consistent problem.

“We would come out every night after work, pick up the garbage, lug it back up to the car, and repeat.”

Gerri Beeler-Schmitt and her husband have been dealing with garbage for decades. But lately there’s been more.

“Sure enough, there was a homeless couple and their dog living on the property.”

Neighbors complained to the city, as they had in the past. But this time, Gerri hesitated.

“We’re not insensitive to the fact that these people have no place to go. There’s no housing open for them. Certainly no housing for a couple and their dog.”

It took the city one Google Earth search to see the problem, and they gave Beeler-Schmitt notice. You clear the property by June, or we will.

“So we had a choice to make at that point: we could either call the cops, have them removed — along with their dog and know that they’d never get their dog back — or we could violate the city timeline. And that’s what we chose to do.”

Their choice left them with an $1,100 bill from the city.

City Manager Scott Sanders wouldn’t appear on camera, but did tell us in a statement that “sufficient time was given to the owner to comply. This is the third cleanup at that same location within the last 12 months.“

Councilman Joe Gatto says this is the first he’d heard of the situation and was more sympathetic.

“This was an opportunity we could’ve done better, no doubt about it.”

While homelessness is a major city concern, this couple in the woods likely wasn’t.

“I will be having a talk with staff about this particular situation because this typically doesn’t happen this way,” Gatto said.

All here agree that this will happen again, soon. And what then?

“We’re just kicking the can down the road; it’s just going to continue to be a problem for us,” Gerri said.

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