Area homeless services see successful winter

Emergency shelters kept hundreds out of the elements this winter in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, and local service agencies are aiming to build on those successes.

'By most measures, it was definitely a successful initiative again this year,” said Crissy Canganelli, executive director of Shelter House in Iowa City. 'We know we provided a safe, secure and warm place for people to go.”

Canganelli said the emergency shelter at 1925 Boyrum St., which was open from Dec. 14 to March 14, averaged 32 people a night and served 175 unique individuals. Last year, the emergency shelter's first year in operation, 125 people were served.

Officials say the shelter has reduced cases of frostbite and vagrancy calls among the homeless population in the winter months.

New this year was a day shelter provided through Johnson County Salvation Army and several local services agencies, including Table to Table.

Located at the Corps center at 1116 S. Gilbert Court, and open from 9 - 11:30 a.m. on weekdays, the program served about 26 people a day, said Rachel Lehmann, Salvation Army social ministries coordinator and Pathway of Hope case manager.

A total of 1,220 meals were served at the day shelter, which operated from Jan 11 through March 18.

'It was really challenging for us to determine what the numbers might be because it was so new, so it was much higher than I had expected,” Lehmann said.

In Cedar Rapids, the Community Overflow Weather Shelter System - which provides extra beds in the city's existing shelters and hosts an off-site facility if those beds fill up - was triggered whenever windchill reached a 'danger” point.

Denine Rushing, shelter manager at the Willis Dady Emergency Shelter, said overflow beds were used a total of 42 nights this winter. On 24 of those nights, the demand for beds was high enough to trigger the need for the off-site location.

Rushing said 90 unique individuals used the service.

'This particular winter, people had somewhere they could go by having the off-site shelter available,” Rushing said. 'Anybody that's in need on those cold nights, they didn't have to sleep on the streets.”

Officials with all three services said they are committed to duplicating efforts next winter.

For Iowa City's Shelter House, the biggest step is identifying a location for next winter's shelter - which has been in a vacant Aldi grocery store and the former TMone building in its first two years of operation.

'Right now we're completely at the mercy of local property owners that would have a vacant commercial space,” Canganelli said.

Earlier this year, Shelter House received an unexpected donation for their winter shelter efforts, due to a lawsuit settlement over local developer Marc Moen's Chauncey project.

Part of the settlement agreement between the city and Trinity Episcopal Church - the church had filed a lawsuit against the city over the Chauncey rezoning process - included a $10,000 annual donation to Shelter House from Moen for three years.

The service cost about $60,000 to operate for 13 weeks this last winter.

Canganelli noted that Shelter House was not involved in the settlement discussion, but said the donation was very appreciated.

In the end, Canganelli said it's encouraging the community seems to be growing more supportive of the winter service.

'There is a growing base of support for this service and this approach,” she said. 'It is a tremendous thing to say our community is now making shelter available for this very vulnerable population in the coldest months of the year.”