Executive Director of Homeward and HealthConnect Fellow
(October 2019-June 2021)
Better connecting homeless children and youth to resources and improving educator interactions with youth, so that homelessness can be brief and rare
Angie Arthur set out to build a stronger network among homeless liaisons in Polk County school districts and to increase their knowledge of services and supports for families. But the pandemic caused school systems to shift focus to online learning, while Arthur’s work became heavily focused on homeless prevention efforts in the community.
“The pandemic really delayed my project. It was a combination of addressing other needs, lack of bandwidth and availability of school staff, and the ever-changing climate and community needs,” said Arthur. “School staff was rightly focused on addressing the changing class location (in person, online, hybrid) rules, student needs, and legislation. The ability to identify homeless students was impacted.”
Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) identified 800 students who were homeless during the 2020-21 school year, compared with 1,800 in previous years. Arthur still hosted conversations with liaisons and shared information. She is just now starting to re-engage relationships with DMPS and the Iowa Department of Education.
Arthur found opportunities to advocate for addressing youth homelessness as well. Along with other fellows and advocates, she is urging state leaders to seal eviction cases that were dismissed or are more than three years old, so that families’ credit scores and ability to rent are not impacted. She also is advocating for 16- and 17-year-olds to be able to make housing and education decisions when a parent or guardian is not available or presents a danger to the youth.
Arthur has shared information regarding eviction prevention broadly with homeless liaisons across Iowa through a connection with the Iowa Department of Education. The information was translated into 11 languages. She also worked with DMPS to include information about homeless prevention resources in its communications to families.
Throughout the pandemic, Arthur managed and was a part of several collaborative efforts to address evictions and homelessness. She connected with Continuum of Care groups across Iowa to manage funding from a foundation to be distributed statewide, creating a system that can be used for future funding.
