Posted inCommunity/News

These bike-riding burrito slingers are some of Des Moines’ most trusted aid workers

They’re affectionately called “the burrito people.” Or sometimes “the burrito slingers.” They’re easily recognizable by their bright yellow bicycle jerseys, T-shirts and welcoming smiles. Every Thursday evening, you can find them in the basement of the Capitol Hill Lutheran Church in the Des Moines East Village neighborhood. They’re volunteers for the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry […]

Posted inCentral Iowa

New study documents costs, stress and confusion unhoused families face in Des Moines area

A study from Drake University, in partnership with homelessness planning organization Homeward, found that the amount of family shelters and affordable housing need to be expanded in order to meet the need from families experiencing homelessness, and the community needs to come together and try to lower barriers for those putting everything they can into […]

Posted inCommunity/News

Street-level aid groups do battle with bulldozers and broken systems as Des Moines’ anti-homeless ordinances encroach

On Sept. 16, the Des Moines City Council passed a pair of ordinances designed to prevent unsheltered citizens from sleeping or living on public property. The first ordinance will make sleeping in public places like sidewalks, streets, doorways, pedestrian and vehicular entrances punishable by a $15 fine, and bans camping under bridges, in parks, and […]

Posted inCommunity/News

‘I am my sister’s keeper’: Trans femmes in Central Iowa share home and resources through the Trans Housing Project

Zoie Taylor has owned two houses, across the street from one another in her Des Moines neighborhood, for a while now. They’re hers outright, mortgages paid off. And for a while, she rented them out in the typical fashion. Until she met Em Cariglino. When Cariglino moved into the three-bedroom house across the street from […]

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