(Radio Iowa) – A recent statewide report found the number of people in the Spencer area who were homeless grew 43 percent between 2019 and 2021 — and Clay County and the City of Spencer are launching an emergency housing program. Rebecca Goeken is the General Relief director for Clay County. “We hope to provide compassionate and timely intervention and prevention of reoccurrence,” Goeken says. Data released recently by the Institute for Community Alliances found fewer than 50 people in Clay County were homeless in 2019, but two years later, more than 100 people in the area were homeless. Goeken says the plan is to hire two part-time people who would be emergency housing coordinators.

“Somebody who can respond within six hours, also someone who can respond on evenings, weekends and holidays, which is kind of unique,” Goeken says, “because right now we don’t have anyone who can do either of those things in Clay County.” Goeken says the county’s emergency coordinators will help set up a plan to find housing for homeless individuals or a job, if needed.

“And to find whatever services they’re needing, whether that be mental health, physical health, substance abuse or whatever that would look like,” she says. According to federal data, about 24-hundred people in Iowa experienced homelessness at some point last year — and only 16 percent of them were chronically homeless.