Bill and Michael Evans spoke to the Kalona City Council July 24. Photo by Sam McIntosh.

Bill and Michael Evans of The Fountain Charitable Foundation requested funding from the Kalona City Council.

The Fountain Charitable Foundation began in 2015 and since has housed 60 at-risk individuals. The program has two phases of housing and providing employment to individuals. Michael describes the struggle that people in the program face, “The problem that we run into is that they’ll get an apartment or something and there’s just no control, we can’t control the environment. Sometimes it’s too expensive for them so we want to try and create some kind of low-income opportunity where they get safe, affordable housing.” Michael adds that with this housing they can still have input on those who are involved in their Retrograde faith-based program.

The Fountain Charitable Foundation is requesting $120,000 to purchase the property at 510 5th Street, in which they would divide housing amongst men, women, and women with children. The property already provides low-income housing on a month-to-month basis. Bill stated that if any of the current tenants qualified for low-income housing for The Fountain they would let them stay. The council expressed concern whether those tenants would choose to stay in the apartments, instead of transitioning out of the program. The council chose to table the discussion for the next meeting.