02/19/2026
Please be educated and understand the implications of bills such as this!
Today, the Iowa House introduced HSB 705, implementing "Drug-free Homeless Service Zones." And while a substance-free environment certainly sounds like a good enough idea, this bill does something very different than its title suggests: it puts vulnerable Iowans at risk for activities over which they have no control.
If, for example, a person unconnected to a homeless service provider transferred a controlled substance on adjacent private property that is less than 300 feet away—property over which they have no legal right to enter, monitor, or control behaviors—the homeless service provider would be ineligible for state funding for three years. This would ultimately harm every individual in crisis in that community, and every system that interacts with those people, too.
It just doesn't make sense.
Although HSB 705 was only filed today, the subcommittee meeting is already scheduled for 8:30 am tomorrow, February 11, 2026. Tonight, we ask that you take a look at the bill—at four pages, it won't take too much of your time—then spend a few minutes sharing your thoughts with elected officials on the Iowa Legislature's public comment site.
