DES MOINES, Iowa — The Public Works Department for the City of Des Moines was busy on Monday cleaning up several homeless encampments.

The city is preparing for a change in ordinance by making sure different local entities have hired staff, and that they are trained for when the new ordinance takes effect.

“The primary health care is still in the hiring process” said Chris Johansen, director of the Neighborhood Services department. “I know they had two or three individuals, I think, to get to a total of four outreach workers that they’re in the process of hiring. I know our conversations with them, we’re looking at after the beginning of the calendar year before we start training on what our process would be and working with them through this new ordinance.”

Right now, if there is a complaint about a camp, the city will post a 10-day notice to vacate the premises before the camp is torn down.

“We have experienced a lot of complaints, that’s been pretty much consistent all calendar year long,” said Johansen.

Under the new ordinance, the notice is only three days, but there will be primary health workers and outreach workers making the first point of contact with unhoused individuals. The hope is that these workers will be able to connect people to resources that they need, maybe even getting them into a temporary shelter.

“I think when we’re kind of more on the enforcement side, it’s a little more difficult role that we have in that. So I think relying on their skill set and their knowledge of the resources is kind of going to be a key component of this,” said Johansen.

Those resources are needed. Iowa Youth Homeless Centers tells WHO 13 News that there are on average 40 individuals between the ages of 18 to 24 in the shelter on a day-to-day basis. The average number in the warmer months is 20 to 25 people.

The center also said that the need for warm clothes has reached a very high demand, along with emergency beds. There is a total of 90 in the center and more and more are being pulled out as the temperatures drop overnight.

Enforcement on the new ordinance looks to start around the beginning of the new year, to align with the start of training for some of the outreach workers.

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