The Ames City Council has taken another step forward to address homelessness in the city. At its Tuesday meeting, the council accepted a report by Analytic Insight, “Conversations on Homelessness Ames and Story County Strategic Plan 2025,” and directed city staff to work with funders to identify priority items in the report.

In August 2024, the council approved having city staff entering into an agreement with a consultant to hold meetings to discuss homelessness. Later, the Story County Board of Supervisors did the same. In December, Analytic Insight was selected as the consultant to develop an action plan.

The consultant visited Ames in February and interviewed Ames and Story County service providers as well as homeless individuals. Additionally, the consultant conducted virtual interviews with key stakeholders throughout February and March.

The consultant’s report contains:

• a suggested vision statement to end homelessness
• an overview of the background of Story County, including an analysis of the available data
• strengths and challenges of the community around addressing homelessness; and
• a three-year recommended action plan with specific recommendations for each of the three years.

The report was not adopted as a formal policy document or plan. Rather, it suggested actions that, if taken, can address homelessness and move the community toward the vision of being a place where everyone has safe and stable housing, according to the report. It will be up to the current or future councils to decide whether to adopt any of the individual recommended strategies from the report.

PAYS’ potential to pay off for energy consumers

A feasibility study financed by the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) will help the City of Ames learn whether it makes sense to implement a program to retrofit local buildings to save on energy costs.

In January 2024, a staff report on a program known as Pay As You Save (PAYS) was introduced. PAYS is a way to finance building retrofits in the community where the utility provides no or low-interest funding for energy efficiency retrofits and is repaid through a customer’s monthly utility bills.

According to city documents, the PAYS model has considerable potential to lower costs for consumers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and benefit the utility through peak demand reductions. PAYS and similar models have been used in several cities, including Maquoketa, Iowa.

A Climate Action Plan (CAP) accepted by the council in June 2023 includes “Six Big Moves.” The second big move is “Building Retrofits, targeting major retrofits to existing buildings to reduce energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions.”

According to city documents, buildings comprise 35 percent of the community’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Projects funded using the PAYS model will only qualify if they result in a net savings for the consumer.

The feasibility study, conducted in partnership with the Energy Efficiency Institute (EEI) is expected to cost $40,000, and should be completed by October. It would:

• determine any prohibitions or hurdles to implementing PAYS;
• assess the value of energy and demand savings to participating customers and Ames Electric Services;
• outline the program’s design and operations; and
• explore potential capital funding sources.