Johnson County to disburse $230K for emergency food and housing assistance

IOWA CITY — Johnson County plans to give out $230,000 in Social Services Emergency Food and Housing grants next month.

The Board of Supervisors will vote next week to approve the Social Services Department’s recommendations.

The funding requests totaled more than $990,000 across 10 applications. The county issued a request for proposal in October for area organizations to apply for funding.

The proposal from the Social Services Department calls providing $10,000 to Immigrant Welcome Network, $15,000 to DVIP/RVAP, $20,000 to HACAP, $25,000 to CommUnity, $60,000 to Shelter House and $100,000 to the Johnson County Food Access network.

“These are all really worthy organizations doing fantastic work, in terms of reviewing and identifying funding recommendations, it really boiled down to where I think we were going to have the biggest impact on meeting the current emergency needs,” Lynette Jacoby, county social services director, said at a board work session this week.

Pending final board approval, awarded grants must be used by June 30, 2026.

Funding for other area nonprofits

Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz proposed that Escucha Mi Voz, one of the applicants that was not recommended for funding, receive $5,000. Fixmer-Oraiz proposed at a board work session that $2,500 be reallocated from both the Johnson County Food Access network and HACAP to Escucha Mi Voz.

“Immigrant welcome network and Escucha Mi Voz in particular are serving parts of our community that potentially find cultural barriers or language barriers in accessing. … certain other services that we have,” Fixmer-Oraiz said at a board work session.

The board plans to formally consider both Fixmer-Oraiz’s request next week.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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