On Tuesday, Central Iowa Shelter & Services (CISS) announced a partnership with Iowa Total Care and a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation, to create an on-the-ground Housing Command Center (HCC) and a mobile application designed to address certain challenges people and communities face as a result of Social Determinants of Health.

The HCC is expected to launch in spring of 2025 and will house and support unsheltered individuals in downtown Des Moines, with two additional locations in Grinnell and Ottumwa. The mobile app, which is slated to launch in the spring of 2024, will offer real-time, action-oriented, person-centered information such as directions to housing, food, medical care, and other resources. By creating a more real-time match of individual and family needs with resources, the app will serve to help address the barriers to health and healthcare for more lowans.

The Centene Foundation and Iowa Total Care, a provider of Medicaid healthcare coverage in Iowa, are funding these initiatives and will invest $2.55 million over the course of two years. CISS Vice President of Advancement Alie Muller-Heit says that these resources will help those without homes in rural Iowa stay in their communities to get the support they need.

“We know that most of those individuals are having to find ways to get to Des Moines to CISS, and that’s a very reactive response for us as opposed to being able to be proactive. So, with the funds from Iowa Total Care and Centene, we’re going to be a lot more proactive helping people in rural Iowa, helping keep rural Iowans with their support systems, and with employers in rural Iowa. So, it’s a big way to help minimize trauma and decrease the stress load and help people where they are as opposed to having them have to find their way to Des Moines to get support.”

Hear more about the announcement from Alie Muller-Heit, in addition to Iowa Total Care Plan President and CEO Mitch Wasden and CISS Job Trainees Atem Majok and Tinesha Gibson on today’s In Touch with South Central Iowa.