KGAN | VIDEO | With efforts four years in the making, Iowa City will be the home of a new kind of housing model aimed at ending homelessness.
It’s called “Housing First” and it’s a project Iowa City leaders, health professionals, and shelter directors have been working together to bring to the community for years. What makes this project so different from many others in Iowa City: it’s a solution to an issue that helps both the homeless better their lives and the city save money.
“If your loved one was in a shelter you would not consider that person housed,” said Crissy Canganelli, Executive Director at Shelter House in Iowa City.
Canganelli is just one of the many people who is involved in the Housing First project.
“We understood that we had individuals in common that we saw coming through our doors—repeatedly coming through our doors—and we knew that they were ending up back on the streets,” said Canganelli.
This is where Cross Park Place comes in. The $3 million dollar project will help in the construction of an apartment complex in Iowa City that will have two floors with a total of 24 single bedroom units for one person each.
by Kayla James, Sunday, April 1st 2018