Willis Dady Homeless Services was the featured guest at the Social Justice committee’s presentation at Saint John the Baptist’s Catholic Church Sunday, Oct. 22. It was the first year the social justice committee opened an event to the public, but they felt the speaker they were bringing in deserved a larger audience.
Aaron Davidson provided an analogy of life before he began his presentation, passing the ball back and forth with a participant to illustrate life’s ups and downs.
“When you miss the ball sometimes, you’re able to pick it up and start all over again,” Davidson said.
The volunteer then was instructed to put on goggles that impaired their vision to indicate dealing with a barrier someone might have, like an addiction or mental health issue, that make bouncing back from some of life’s ups and downs harder.
After a few rounds of that, Davidson then gave the volunteer another layer of goggles that made seeing anything unachievable.
“Imagine living on the streets, trying to figure out where your meal is coming from or where you’re going to sleep, and facing trauma almost every day,” Davidson said. “You’re not going to catch the ball life is throwing at you or bounce back.”
Davidson also reiterated that the phrase “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” was originally meant to indicate something that was not achievable.
“Boot straps themselves were very thin pieces of leather not intended to lift the entire boot,” Davidson said. “Pulling your leg over a fence by the bootstrap was an impossibility, it was an image in the 1800s of something everyone knew would never happen, something highly unachievable. Somehow, that definition changed to today’s meaning of attempting to help oneself without the aid of others.”
Davidson then highlighted the different types of clients they work with at Willis Dady. The first type are clients on the threshold of becoming homeless needing intervention services Willis Dady provide, from limited rental assistance and eviction assistance or landlord mediation, to helping the client deal with what has brought them to that point.
Another is someone who has been dealing with homelessness for a while. They’ve lost their documentation and are just surviving on the street.
Those resources help provide them with basic needs, like how to survive the harsher months in Iowa with safer spaces to sleep. The team meets with the population on the street to find what resources they might need and try to help them find housing resources.
Another group are people like military who are struggling with mental health issues and struggle to maintain jobs for long periods on returning to civilian life.
“We work with getting them access to veterans services in the area and enrolled in the correct benefits,” Davidson said. “We work with them in trying to find leases and housing that they could qualify for that can be transferred to them when they are ready.”
In all cases, Davidson said they always offer individualized case management to address a person’s needs.
Davidson said between 2019 to 2022, the Cedar Rapids area saw a 230 percent increase in homelessness.
“There have been a lot of struggles many people have seen in that time frame, including the cost of living increases,” Davidson said. “It’s hard to go to a grocery store and pay less than $200 for groceries every few weeks, and if the choice is food or rent, many people choose food.”
Davidson said the agency had a lot of additional funding offered during the pandemic thanks to CARES act funding, but those resources are starting to dry up.
“What we’re finding is that was a band-aid on a much larger problem,” Davidson said.
The biggest issue in the Cedar Rapids corridor is the lack of affordable housing options.
“We’re seeing many of these communities hovering at roughly 1 percent housing,” Davidson said. “For healthy cities, that housing options should be floating at closer to 5 percent.”
Davidson said things people can do to help include create a community that cares and advocate for affordable and accessible resources, champion programs and agencies like Willis Dady who make a difference on the issue, and offer support and encouragement where and when you can.
“The number one hardest barrier for many who are homeless to overcome is isolation,” Davidson said. “They can be around people every day and catch absolutely no one’s eye.”
Mayor Tom Wieseler said the City of Mount Vernon is working on a development for people 55 or older with a total of 33 units that will start construction next year, but that’s a small portion of the population.
Davidson said seniors are one of the fastest growing demographic for homelessness nationwide.
The organization counted roughly 123 people in Linn County during their last count who were homeless throughout the county.
An attendee asked about the recent encampment disrupted in Cedar Rapids.
“Our approach when dealing with homeless is to always do so with kindness and work with them,” Davidson said. “Having someone’s belongings get bulldozed from any area helps nobody.”
He said ways people can help is to provide snacks, water and resources they may need, compared to providing cash donations.
“It is absolutely okay to say no, you can’t help if you can’t, but always treat them like a person who you see,” Davidson said.
Homelessness in Linn County: Willis Dady offers solutions
November 2, 2023
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.