UpLift’s 2026 Community Book Club featuring Pulitzer prize-winning book, There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, by Brain Goldstone is taking place in 25 different Iowa communities. The book follows the lives of five Atlanta families as they navigate skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights leading to the current phenomenon – people with full-time jobs struggle to keep a roof over their head. Each book club was provided with a book set, a discussion guide, and UpLift Iowa specific materials on homelessness, eviction, and available and affordable housing.

In partnership with Homeward, UpLift has released a new publication “Homelessness in Iowa”. This short, one-page publication was created to deepen readers’ understanding of homelessness in Iowa and enhance the conversations happening in UpLift’s statewide Community Book Clubs.

Across Iowa, in May 2026, almost 1,000 individuals entered homelessness support services through Iowa’s Continuums of Care. Of those who entered services, 18% cited an eviction as the reason they needed service. In August 2026, UpLift will launch the Central Iowa Emergency Rental Assistance Study (CIERAS) as a homelessness prevention strategy. The study is led by a team of economists and a sociologist at Grinnell College. As a random assigned trail, participants will be randomly assigned to receive either 1, 3, or 6 – months of assistance. The control group, who do not receive assistance from the study but remain eligible for any assistance traditionally offered by agencies, will serve as a comparison group. Participating nonprofit partners include public and private agencies that deliver emergency rental assistance in Dallas, Polk, and Warren counties.