Central Iowa Shelter and Services in Des Moines wants to build duplexes for transitional housing on three city-owned lots in Newton. The lots were acquired through the city’s Dangerous and Dilapidated Building Program. The properties at 509 West Second Street South and 514 South Second Avenue West were given to the city via a court petition in 2019 and 2020, while 625 East 5th Street South was purchased in 2014. Central Iowa Shelter Services is proposing to purchase the now vacant lots for one dollar, and would use the duplexes they propose to build to help people in need of housing in Newton. Sam Carrell, Vice President of Strategy and Rural Development with Central Iowa Shelter and Services, says the organization has been quietly serving Newton for some time. 

“I asked how many people we had from Jasper County at the shelter within the past six months. I found out we have had twenty individuals out of Jasper County that have been serviced at the shelter in Des Moines. That doesn’t include people that our outreach workers may have been working with here, who didn’t have to come to Des Moines because they were able to use different funding to help secure housing or whatever their particular need is.”

Central Iowa Shelter & Services would be seeking State and/or Federal funding assistance for their project, which requires some local match funds. But expenses incurred by the City for acquisition, demolition, and maintenance of the lots can be used toward the local investment or match. This past year, City staff says a total of $4,500 was spent on mowing and maintaining all three lots.