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After $1 million in renovations, Linn County winter weather shelter opens Saturday
Improvements include expanded sprinkler and fire alarm system, bathroom renovations and an elevator
Nov. 21, 2025 9:54 am, Updated: Nov. 24, 2025 3:32 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS — After a slight delay, the Linn County overnight winter weather shelter is set to open Saturday as a “last resort” for those seeking shelter during the harsh winter months.
The shelter, located at 1017 12th Ave. SW in Cedar Rapids, will open at 4 p.m. Saturday and continue to do so nightly through March 31.
The space will be open from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. Monday through Saturday and from 4 p.m. to noon on Sunday — a slight expansion from last year when the shelter opened nightly at 6 p.m.
“We’ve moved that time forward a little bit to give people a little more time to get in and get settled,” said Linn County Community Services Director David Thielen. “Otherwise it was a little bit of a mad rush.”
The two-story, 16,200-square-foot facility is meant as an overflow shelter for those who would otherwise have nowhere to go during the coldest nights of the year. Linn County owns the building and shares operational costs with the city of Cedar Rapids.
This year, the facility has undergone a series of renovations to increase space and improve safety. Linn County invested upward of $1 million into the upgrades, which were funded using American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Construction began on the project earlier this year and continued throughout the summer and early fall. The work briefly pushed back the shelter’s opening from its original Nov. 15 projection due to construction delays.
Completed improvements include a build-out of the building’s sprinkler and fire alarm system, bathroom renovations and accessibility upgrades such as an elevator addition that opens up use of the building’s second floor.
Last year’s shelter season ran from Nov. 15 to March 31, during which the facility served 471 people in total. While the nightly headcount varied depending on the weather, the shelter housed an average of 73 people per night.
That number isn’t necessarily expected to change as a result of the shelter renovations, but county leaders say the improvements should provide a safer, more spacious shelter experience — particularly through the use of the now-open second floor.
“This is not supposed to be a permanent solution for folks, … but if people do have to spend the night here, we think it’s best that they have some sort of basic accommodations where they’re not on top of others,” District 2 Linn County Supervisor Sami Scheetz said during a recent shelter tour. “Nobody likes being packed in like sardines.”
Other changes to the facility include the addition of lockers where visitors can safely store their belongings. The lockers will only be accessible during shelter hours and secured using a biometric system that uses a visitors’ thumbprint as the key.
Facility management has also evolved from previous years when shelter management was contracted through Willis Dady Homeless Services. This year, that work will be overseen by a mix of staff from the Housing Trust Fund for Linn County, Waypoint Services and Anaheim Security.
Later this winter, the Housing Trust Fund intends to roll out a pilot program to bring medical staff to the shelter to connect with residents. The county recently was awarded $94,000 to that effort, which is part of a larger street medicine collaborative working to bring medical care to the unhoused.
Comments: grace.nieland@thegazette.com
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