How DART is a Solution for Anawim Housing

“The buses are crucial for me. The city is too big to be without them. Everything is too spread out for one person to walk everywhere.”  

Stephanie Finley rides DART every day to reach destinations throughout Greater Des Moines, including work, shopping centers and medical appointments. Most often, she commutes on the bus from her home along Merle Hay Road to a job at Walgreens on the east side of Des Moines.  

Stephanie says having access to reliable transportation helped her get hired at the store last year. “There was really no place I could work without taking a bus, and transportation is essential to keep my job,” she said.  

Outside of work, Stephanie and her partner Anthony Ramirez ride DART Routes 1, 3, 5 and 16 to get to food pantries, stores near downtown Des Moines and Walmart in Windsor Heights. They both fully depend on public transit to get from one place to another. 

“To be quite honest,” Stephanie said, “having [the bus] makes me feel relieved.”

DART is a Solution for Anawim Housing

Stephanie and Anthony both ride DART for free because they are a part of Anawim Housing’s permanent supportive housing program. They described themselves as homeless before staff at Primary Healthcare connected them to Anawim for assistance three years ago.  

Anawim is a nonprofit specializing in permanent supportive housing and affordable housing property management. Anawim partners with DART to allow all of the people they serve to ride DART for free. DART offers multiple bus routes near Anawim’s 240 scattered site housing units and program locations.

Since the start of Anawim’s Unlimited Access partnership in November 2023, ridership among their tenants has grown quickly. As of December 2024, DART provides an average of nearly 3,900 trips to Anawim tenants each month. Altogether, DART Anawim tenants took more than 50,000 rides in the first 13 months of the partnership. 

“There’s no way our case managers could cover the number of rides that DART provides our tenants,” said Jeremy Orcutt, Director of Programs and Services at Anawim. “I can’t have team members work until 7:00 at night to accommodate our tenants that work later in the day.”

Before partnering with DART, Anawim routinely purchased bus tokens from DART Central Station to serve their 400+ tenants in Polk County, many of whom suffer from mental illness or substance abuse issues, have severe disabilities, or have fled domestic violence. 

“Having [free bus rides] is a huge weight off the tenant. This gives them more autonomy, and we can actually start holding them more accountable,” Jeremy said. “It’s been awesome for our staff, too. It’s a huge weight lifted off of them.” 

Star Lofts is Anawim Housing's newest apartment housing in Des Moines.

Housing and Transportation: A Critical Foundation

Referencing a housing crisis in central Iowa¹, Jeremy says the need for permanent supportive housing and affordable housing in the region far outweighs the resources. Although addressing the problem has many parts and requires significant attention and collaboration, he says access to transportation is a crucial component.  

“If you don’t have that foundation of housing and transportation, it’s really hard to expect somebody to keep a mental health appointment or job interview appointment. Housing and transportation are the two most critical things,” Jeremy explained.  

DART partners with other residential properties in Greater Des Moines that recognize the importance of providing transportation access for their residents, including Conlin Properties, Cutler Development and Newbury Living. Nearly one-fourth of the ridership among DART Unlimited Access partners comes from residents of these properties.  

“Removing the barrier of transportation as a resident amenity is a way for DART to be a good community partner and demonstrates the role mobility plays across all social determinants of health, housing being just one,” said Matthew Harris, DART’s Business and Community Partnerships Manager.

About DART Unlimited Access Partnerships

DART’s Unlimited Access partnership program has more than 20 residential properties, higher education institutions and regional employers. For an annual contrate rate, Unlimited Access partnerships allow an organization’s residents, students or employees to ride transit for free. Learn more at www.ridedart.com.

SOURCES: 

¹Iowa | National Low Income Housing Coalition