Breaking ground for permanent supportive housing in Clinton

By Barb Arland-Fye
The Catholic Messenger

 CLINTON — Some supportive housing advocates clutched hand warmers; others wore colorful winter hats that Sister Kathleen Holland, OSF, distributed on a frigid morning last month before the long-awaited groundbreaking downtown on a $6.9 million permanent, supportive housing project. The Sisters of St. Francis of Clinton are among the ardent supporters of the YWCA Clinton project that will provide stability for individuals struggling with chronic homelessness.

Sister Jan Cebula, president of the Clinton Franciscans, said she had no advance notice that someone would ask a representative from her community to come up and take a shovel during the groundbreaking Dec. 13. “It was a privilege to be part of this significant occasion benefiting the community of Clinton,” she told The Catholic Messenger. “The Clinton County Housing Collaboration has been meeting and searching for additional ways to address the growing numbers of unhoused people for years! It has been a long journey to get to this day and I am very grateful that the YWCA stepped up to the challenge of increasing the stock of affordable housing in Clinton. We look forward to the day when the doors open.”

With an anticipated opening date 11 months from now, “we will gain 24 one-bedroom units of permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness,” said Shannon Sander-Welzien, executive director of YWCA Clinton. As many as 48 tenants (individuals and families) could reside in the facility but Sander-Welzien estimates an average of 32. Tenants must meet eligibility requirements and have the highest barriers to housing.

In Fiscal Year 2024, YWCA Clinton assisted 110 people at risk of homelessness in staying housed with Homelessness Prevention funding and served 363 people experiencing literal homelessness through YWCA Clinton’s housing programs.

“We answered 2,355 housing crisis helpline calls and made 7,005 referrals for services,” Sander-Welzien said. YWCA Clinton serves as the Coordinated Entry access point for persons experiencing homelessness in Clinton and Jackson counties. At any given point during a year, YWCA Clinton has 100 to 250 applications waiting for assistance. Each application represents one to eight people. YWCA Clinton does not have the resources to help everyone, she said.

Fixing the problem benefits all

“By 2030, it is projected we will have a deficit of 1,642 affordable housing units (for persons earning no more than 30% of Area Median Income) in Clinton County. Our fellow community members are dramatically affected by the shortage of affordable housing and fixing the problem benefits everyone,” Sander-Welzien said.

Iowa Housing Needs Analysis & Housing Strategies Report, 2023, identified three main housing challenges in Clinton: shortage, affordability and quality. The housing needs analysis states, “Clinton needs 635 additional units to provide affordable housing to renter households making less than $20,000 annually.”

Sander-Welzien be­lieves the greatest barriers to affordable housing in the Clinton area are income inequality, lack of affordable housing and “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) opposition. “Sixty-four percent of Iowans believe we need more affordable housing, but that number reduces to 51% when the project is located in your zip code,” she said.

Last July, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other Catholic entities asked Congress to support the “Yes in God’s Backyard Act,” which would “help faith-based and nonprofit organizations improve their capacity to meet housing needs of poor and vulnerable community members.” The Catholic Church teaches that affordable, stable housing is a human right.

“The United States is in the midst of a profound and prolonged housing crisis. A systemic lack of affordable housing drives up housing costs for low-income households, exacerbating their financial insecurity. The problems are even more acute for African American, Latino, and Indigenous households, who are at least twice as likely to experience housing cost burdens as white households,” the letter to Congress stated.

Clinton City Administrator Matt Brooke, one of the speakers at the Dec. 13 groundbreaking, when the temperature hovered around 7 degrees F, said he could not think of “a more fitting reminder of why this project is so important. Just like the cold we’re feeling today, there are those in our community who are facing difficult, uncomfortable situations and they need the warmth of support and care.”

He praised the YWCA for its “incredible courage in pushing forward with this initiative, even when faced with opposition” and thanked other supporters by name, including the Sisters of St. Francis, whom he noted have supported this effort for years. “This facility is about giving people the opportunity to feel safe, supported and valued. We all need someone to believe in us and, sometimes, that’s all it takes to make a life-changing difference,” he said.

Brooke, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, said during his deployment to Afghanistan, which has a tribal society, he noticed, “One of the things that tribes do not have is folks without a place to live. Every member of the tribe is welcomed and cared for.”

Project fully funded

YWCA Clinton and other project advocates had to overcome opposition that threatened the project from materializing. Their efforts succeeded. In late November 2023, the Clinton City Council narrowly approved the sale of city-owned property in DeWitt Park to YWCA Clinton for the permanent supportive housing project. Council members voted by a larger margin to approve a $500,000 matching grant previously promised for the project.

The city council’s approval of the sale of the property by Nov. 30, 2023 was essential to YWCA Clinton receiving a $4.4 million grant from the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF), the largest such award in Iowa, to go toward the project. The Iowa Finance Authority, which administers the grant, had extended the deadline after the City Council rejected the YWCA’s first proposed site for the project because of community opposition.

“We have secured $6.9 million for construction, as well as a $500,000 operational reserve account to help sustain operations,” Sander-Welzien said. “The project is fully funded. However, we will continue to seek grants and investors.” Additional funding would go toward “promoting better outcomes for program participants. Our vision is to create job-training opportunities within the facility. Current plans include space for a cafe where program participants can gain hands-on job experience and build up a positive work history,” she said.

The facility will host its Empowerment Center offices on site, offer community space, meeting space, laundry, showers, warming and cooling space. The new project also “will allow us to be able to run our current programs more efficiently,” Sander-Welzien said. “We will continue to offer Rapid Rehousing, Emergency Shelter, Homelessness Prevention, Diversion and Street Outreach services.”