Linn County Youth Shelter faces uncertain future

Janet Webster remembers the Linn County Youth Shelter's start in 1975.

A 13-year-old girl had been sexually abused by a man in her home, and Webster's late husband, then Sheriff's Sgt. David Webster, was searching for a safe place for the girl.

After calling several churches, Webster finally found a family to take her in, but the episode led him and others to decide Linn County needed a shelter for teens who face trouble at home through no fault of their own. Jail wasn't the answer, and neither was juvenile detention.

“They decided there was a need in Linn County,” Janet Webster said. “They were right.”

Now, the shelter faces permanent closure. The building at 220 10th St. NW, in a residential Cedar Rapids neighborhood, was damaged in the flood, and the shelter moved to the Juvenile Detention Center near The Eastern Iowa Airport.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency committed $964,703 to repair the home, which had 14 beds. FEMA, however, allows local governments to divert repair money to other projects at a 19 percent penalty, and the county supervisors have taken advantage. The shelter won't be repaired, and the money will either help build a juvenile courts building or repair the county's administrative office building.

Several local non-profit leaders and county officials have been invited to make recommendations on how to handle youth services in Linn County. The committee will have something to say in six to 12 months. Among the options are converting part of the detention center into a permanent shelter or not having a government-funded shelter at all.

The Youth Shelter's budget for the last fiscal year was $842,800. It has a staff of 10. When it opened, it was a groundbreaking endeavor in the state, providing 24-hour supervision, guidance and counseling.

Supervisors say private organizations can step in to fill the void if the county stops funding the shelter. Two area non-profits - Foundation 2 and Four Oaks - also run shelters for teenagers. Foundation 2 has a 15-bed shelter in a residential neighborhood in southwest Cedar Rapids, but the Four Oaks shelters are in Iowa City and Independence, with nothing in Linn County.

Are 15 shelter beds enough for Cedar Rapids?

“I don't believe so,” said Jeff Werning, head of the Linn County Youth Shelter.

The shelter's average population before the flood was about 11 kids per day. Foundation 2's average was eight or nine kids per day. Werning said it's best to always have a few beds open for emergency cases.

“I remember from my situation, there weren't any beds at the other places,” said Brittany Shanklin, 18, who stayed at the Youth Shelter twice in late 2006 and early 2007.

Two days after her sixteenth birthday, Shanklin's home in Center Point was determined to be unsafe. She ended up at the Youth Shelter and barely spoke for a month.

“I would just sit in a corner and read,” she said. “I was just absolutely mute.”

Workers at the shelter were patient. They didn't press her, and after a few weeks they broke down her defenses, she said. Later, a worker at the shelter and his wife became Shanklin's foster parents.

“Now I have a great home and a bunch of little siblings, and it's just wonderful,” said Shanklin, a sophomore this fall at Mount Mercy College, where she's studying mathematics and computer science.