Breaking down the Des Moines City Council’s 7 directives to support the homeless

DES MOINES, Iowa — Monday night the City of Des Moines’ City Council passed an ordinance to ban camping in the city which received criticism for targeting the homeless.

The city also passed seven directives that aim to reduce the barriers that Des Moines’ homeless residents experience preventing them from accessing shelters and services.

The directives are as follows:

• Council Directive 1. Work with shelter operators, discuss current shelter practices and policies,
  and identify ways to reduce barriers to emergency shelter use.
• Council Directive 2. Establish an agreement with an animal services provider to shelter animals of
  unhoused individuals in Des Moines while individuals seek emergency shelter.
• Council Directive 3. Identify secured personal storage options for unhoused individuals.
• Council Directive 4. Establish a process making transportation available from campsites to
  emergency shelter for individuals interested in entering emergency shelter.
• Council Directive 5. Add public restrooms to many of the City parking garages.
• Council Directive 6. Have four outreach workers to work directly with the Des Moines homeless
  population to provide services.
• Council Directive 7. Hire a hearing officer to expedite hearings in a shorter timeframe.

The city has already made progress on many of the directives. One is hiring three more full-time outreach workers.

The city has partnered with Primary Health Care to provide the outreach workers.

Shelby Ridley, the Director of Programs at Primary Health Care, said that the outreach workers are the first line of contact for Des Moines’ homeless.

“People will be able to email us or to call us if they have concerns about somebody, and we’ll be kind of the first point of contact. We really believe in client self-determination, so we’ll make contact with folks, really engage them to see if they need anything, if we can help them get those community resources. But at the end of the day, they make decisions that are best for them,” Ridley said.

The ordinance that bans camping in the city will go into effect in the next seven to 10 days. The city hopes to have the seven directives ready to go by then.

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