Staff Spotlight: Hunter Jimenez | Program Team Intern | April 8, 2020
My name is Hunter Jimenez and I am originally from Gilbert, Arizona. I came to Iowa to start college at Drake University in the fall and I am a Political Science and International Relations double major. I receive a lot of questions on why I traded palm trees and a forever summer for the land of corn and caucuses. Well, because it is “First in the Nation!” in electing the President and I was really impressed with Drake’s reputation as an institution and Iowa’s political environment.
A few weeks into the semester I began my internship with Anawim Housing, and it has been a joy since. I have always been a proponent of social justice, which is a symptom of my culminating experience in high school as an Anti-Defamation peer trainer. I also love to learn about issues that I am not completely knowledgeable about. Today’s culture tells us that homelessness—and people experiencing homelessness—are a threat. Popular opinion says that people experiencing homelessness are facing those circumstances because of their own choices. But in the time I have been with Anawim, I have learned that poverty is more precarious than what most people believe. I have learned that the institutional mechanisms that are supposed to bring people out of homelessness, may be keeping them there.
If you are someone who was born into the bottom 10% of earners, you are almost 20 times more likely to be incarcerated than people born into the top 10%. Essentially, “too poor to pay” legislation criminalizes vulnerable communities—especially housing insecure people. Imagine that anywhere you try to sit down, you are in threat of being arrested. In some ways, this is how people experiencing homelessness are treated by municipalities. We want our cities to look nice but at the expense of excluding those most disenfranchised by pushing them further and further outside our borders.
Being a part of Anawim Housing has invited me into the process of reconciling these grievances and taking part in the process of helping people become stably housed. My favorite part is welcoming people to Full Circle. Full Circle is a weekly peer support group Anawim Housing offers to its program participants.
I could probably write a book of anecdotes about all of the experiences I have had while working with Anawim Housing. Some of my work is coordinating volunteers, and that requires reaching out to community partners and inviting them to engage with our nonprofit. As someone who is not familiar with Des Moines, this has helped me network with different organizations in the area and connect our tenants with leaders in the community. Collectively, we have shared our lived experiences, our heartbreak, and our greatest victories. I am proud to be welcomed into an environment where the empowerment of each person is a top priority.
Hunter Jimenez is a first-year student at Drake University and is part of the Engaged Citizen Corps—a program that integrates academics and civic engagement.