STAY – Starts Right Here
Des Moines, IA • 2026

In the fall of 2022, a small group of housing and educational advocates for high-risk students ask HDG to become involve with a unique and experimental student graduation program.  Starts Right Here has a contract with the Des Moines Public Schools to educate students either who have already dropped out of school or are at high risk of dropping out.  Their success rate was so impressive that the Governor allowed herself to be appointed to SRH’s advisory committee.

 

The SRH board of directors showed tenacity in the face of working with high-risk kids and decided to expand its educational facility to include housing.  While attending SRH school program is not a prerequisite for securing housing, SRH is focusing on homeless youth.  In September of 2023, SRH placed an option to buy on a vacant church at 525 East 9th Street in Des Moines’ east side and will convert the church into 18 studio apartments for homeless youth to find security away from living on the street, a couch, or from moving from friend to friend to find a place to sleep. The historic church will be renovated to keep its architectural significant and allow SRH to expend its educational contract with the DMPS to continue to provide an alternative structure for these kids to obtain a high school diploma.

 

The Iowa Finance Authority provided the leadership by tailoring a new form of federal funding through the American Recovery Plan Act of 2021 to provide a competitive process to non-profit agencies to provide new housing and supportive services.  The state was joined by the City of Des Moines and Polk County to provide $5.5 million dollars in funding for this new model of providing housing to kids that are truly the most vulnerable.  Besides providing housing to the youth, IFA’s funds will provide valuable supportive services to the youth that is experiencing homelessness. The program will create strategies to housing barriers and provide wrap-around services for the clients.

 

The SRH board has also raised over $1.6 million in private contributions to expand and renovate the other half of the church and double its educational programing for the high-risk kids.  This approach of combining housing and education to at-risk homeless youth may be the new model for the nation to follow.