10 to Watch: Laura Iosbaker leads the opening of Cross Park Place apartments for the homeless

After years of planning, Preston-born Laura Iosbaker is ready for Iowa's first permanent housing apartment complex for the chronically homeless to open in Iowa City. 

"Five years ago it was just an idea that we talked about," she said. "It's going to be awesome to see people in their new apartments." 

As program manager at the Shelter House-owned Cross Park Place, she'll oversee the apartment staff and manage the program through collaborations with the Housing Authority of Iowa City and University of Iowa clinicians.  

Iosbaker said her career isn't a normal one for someone with her degrees, but it worked out because of her technical experience helping the homeless population in Iowa City hospitals. 

After finishing her B.A. in Psychology in 2009 at the University of Iowa she enrolled in the university's Graduate School of Social Work. While in the graduate program, she took on the role as a clinical social worker in 2011 at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. 

Iosbaker graduated from the School of Social Work in 2012 before starting at Mercy Iowa City as a medical social worker in 2013. Then in February 2015, while sitting on the Housing First committee, she became the Housing First project manager. 

Shelter House hired her in 2017 before she became the full-time Cross Park Place program manager this past August. 

"It's been a whirlwind," she said. "It's been awesome to see how quickly a project came together after you've been working on it for so long." 

The project manager has been working on going through ,multiple references for potential residents at Cross Park Place, 820 Cross Park Ave., and plans to have the first group in their apartments in January.

The residents will be chronically homeless individuals who have a disability and have been homeless for 12 consecutive months or have had four episodes of homelessness in the last three years totaling 12 months. 

Case managers and clinicians will be available on-site but residents are not required to seek out services. 

"It's an apartment complex for people who need it," she said. "Housing is a human right. It's not something you have to earn." 

Reach Hillary Ojeda at 319-339-7345, hojeda@press-citizen.com or follow her on Twitter at @hillarymojeda