Des Moines City Council Blocks Group Home for Homeless Men

Posted on by Vaseline

Plans for a group housing project on the south side of Des Moines for recently homeless men are officially dead after the City Council voted to block the project at 7:30 a.m. Monday.

The item was originally scheduled to be voted on a week earlier at a packed meeting, but the public comment period was interrupted by a tornado, forcing city officials to temporarily confine attendees to the basement of City Hall before the meeting adjourned.

The vote was moved in preparation for a special meeting to discuss an ordinance to ban homeless camping, which drew a crowd that overflowed the council chamber with three police officers present. Several attendees were asked to leave and watch a livestream of the meeting.

Under the rejected proposal, Hope Ministries, which provides food and shelter to homeless Iowans, would have had to repurpose one of the former Orchard Place Child Mental Health Service residential facilities at 1301 Kenyon Ave., which closed in 2015 after the state cut off funding to the organization.

Neighbors fiercely opposed the plans, which included converting the 14-bedroom house into 12 temporary housing units to help men transition to permanent housing.

The complex is surrounded by single-family homes.

“Honestly, I’m just scared. I’m scared that there are homeless men in my neighborhood,” resident Audrene Hansen told the council. “We have a sidewalk now. I want to walk up and down the sidewalk. We have kids going to school; they’re waiting for the bus. What are they going to do with these men?”

Minority of council members win vote against housing project

The item was defeated in a 3-4 vote, with Councilmembers Joe Gatto, Chris Coleman and Mayor Connie Boesen opposing Hope Ministries. Due to opposition from neighboring homeowners, it took six votes to pass.

Coleman and Boesen opposed the nonprofit’s desire to build 12 units, citing CEO Leon Negen’s comments that the project wouldn’t be financially feasible with only eight units. They both suggested that Hope Ministries may have rejected their offers to “close the gap.”

The city’s Plan and Zoning Commission initially approved the project in June by a vote of 12-1, giving Hope Ministries early permission to build the 12 units despite the land being zoned for eight. City staff supported the proposal, noting that the large corner lot would not be easily redevelopable into single-family homes.

More: ‘I don’t need them in my backyard’: Neighbors oppose group home in Beaverdale

If the non-profit organization had wanted to house eight men, no permission from the municipality would have been required.

“(Hope Ministries) is doing a great job. I hope they choose to open this with eight people,” Coleman said. “If it works great, we’ll come back here and add whatever they want, because they’ve proven all the concerns were myths. But let’s prove it first.”

“We found a gap for the rent, but I think there are other financial issues. We are willing to make up that difference,” Boesen said.

Des Moines did not offer to replace lost funds, says Hope Ministries CEO

Nine denied that the city had promised to cover part of Hope Ministries’ funding shortfall, which allegedly stems not from lost rent but from a $1.8 million grant Hope received to purchase and renovate the Orchard Place building.

With fewer than 12 housing units, the nonprofit organization is not eligible for the subsidy and cannot continue building homes.

The only consolation the city offered, he said, was help paying the facility’s operating costs.

Earlier: Hope Ministries Celebrates 100th Anniversary

“There are no other avenues for us,” Negen told the Register. “There’s nothing we can do.”

The property at 1301 Kenyon Ave. remains vacant for now. It’s currently listed for sale for $600,000, and city staff have previously noted that the large corner lot is not suitable for redevelopment into single-family homes.

The facility would have been affordable housing, not shelter

Nine told the council that the facility would not be a homeless shelter, but an affordable housing development for men who have already graduated from one of Hope Ministries’ “life recovery” programs. Tenants would be able to live there for up to two years, and they would be required to have a job and pay rent.

They were also not allowed to possess alcohol, entertain guests or possess a weapon. One of the residents would act as house manager, overseeing the maintenance of the building and grounds and discussing any concerns with the other residents.

And because the building is so close to the schools, sex offenders who have committed a crime against a minor would not be allowed to live there.

“Every time we develop a new project in this city, we run into neighborhood resistance,” Negen said, referring to their men’s shelter on Sixth Avenue and the Door of Faith on Southwest Ninth Street. “If not here, and not here, and not here, then where?”

The most recent example, in 2020, is that Hope Ministries announced plans to convert the former Douglas Elementary, 3800 E. Douglas Ave., into a shelter that will house approximately 100 women and children.

Neighbors feared that the shelter would bring crime, beggars and lower house prices. The project started later in 2022.

Decision comes as Des Moines struggles with homeless population

The City Council’s decision came before it tentatively approved an ordinance change that would ban camping and reduce the number of days people must remove their belongings from public spaces. The measure would signal the city’s intention to take a “harder” approach to addressing homelessness.

Councilman Coleman, who spearheaded the ordinance, said homelessness is becoming more visible and concerning to Des Moines residents. The latest figures from a semiannual one-time count in Polk County, conducted over a 24-hour period in January, showed 715 people experiencing homelessness — an 11 percent increase from the previous year.

Nicholas Kearns, who was once homeless before entering Hope Ministries’ recovery program, told the council that a major obstacle he faced after leaving Door of Faith was finding permanent housing. Without a way to return to the community, Kearns said, he was at risk of becoming “part of the problem” again.

“I was in dire need of structured, responsible, temporary housing in a good neighborhood, and that is still the case for men today,” he said.

Councilman Josh Mandelbaum voted in favor of the project, along with Mike Simonson, Linda Westergaard and Carl Voss, noting that the city’s changing rules on how homeless people are punished would make projects like group housing all the more valuable to Des Moines.

“More aggressive enforcement will put additional pressure on all aspects of our homeless network,” Mandelbaum said. “It will make solutions like this more important, not less.”

Addison Lathers covers growth and development for the Des Moines metro. Reach her at 608-931-1761 or [email protected] and follow her on X at @addisonlathers.

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