Activists in Council Bluffs are taking to the streets to help people who are homeless through a new program called “A Path Forward.”
Chasity Kephart is a first responder community health coach with the Council Bluffs Police Department. She spent last week hiking along the Missouri River, reaching out to people who need help.
“We did a lot of things during that week with a lot of people and made some really good strides, but now how do we keep that momentum going and doing the follow up?” Kephart says. “So those are some things we’re looking at as a community and agencies together. How do we continue to make progress and what does that look like moving forward?”
Kephart says they helped more than 40 people last week and plan to connect with many more when they return to the riverfront next week.
She says a majority of the homeless people are struggling with addiction, mental health and economic issues.
“Just really getting all those things stabilized to move forward. A lot of them don’t have an income, which then makes it hard to get housing,” Kephart says. “And then if they’re using, or mentally ill, then that’s hard to get a job, to move forward with housing. So I think it’s those three things really are the problems we’re seeing.”
Kephart says hands-on support seems to be a better option in connecting people with resources. Sixteen different agencies are participating in the project.
(By Sheila Brummer, Iowa Public Radio)