New Cedar Rapids women’s shelter awaits more donations before opening

CEDAR RAPIDS - Amid a long stretch of winter weather, Cedar Rapids' overflow shelters are busier than ever, but the need of more funding is keeping one women's shelter from opening.

This winter has brought a record number of people to the Cedar Rapids overflow shelters, said J'Nae Peterman, director of homeless and housing services for Waypoint Services.

The Linn County Continuum of Care Community Overflow Weather Shelter System goes into effect when temperatures outside dip to 32 degrees. The overflow shelters house homeless people when the existing shelters are filled. Multiple Linn County service providers are part of the system, which Peterman coordinates.

Peterman said increasing the trigger temperature from 15 degrees last season to 32 degrees this time, and spreading the word about added shelter availability, has led to increased use.

There have been only a few days this season when the overflow shelters have closed since they opened at the end of November as temperatures dipped.

'It's a resource people know are going to be there every night,” Peterman said. 'We have served 233 unduplicated people, and we're averaging about 30 people a night.”

Cold temperatures make staying outside unbearable, Peterman said. Homeless families or individuals can run out of money for hotel stays or are passing through Cedar Rapids and need take advantage of the overflow shelters.

'They're using the overflow shelters to either give their pocketbooks a break from staying in a hotel or give whoever they're staying with a reprieve,” she said. 'The last thing we want to do is jeopardize someone else's housing because they have someone homeless staying with them.”

Mission of Hope, a Christian-based ministry organization in Cedar Rapids, currently operates a men's shelter on Park Court SE that also is part of the overflow shelter system.

Now the organization is looking to open a women's shelter next door.

Fresh lumber has replaced the rotten front porch and trim on the outside of the renovated house on Park Court SE. Inside, the historic house has been stripped to the studs and repaired. Fresh coats of paint and donated flared-arm, floral sofas are stationed in the sitting room next to other donated furniture and household goods.

The shelter, intended to be run by staff, will house only adult women from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Kim Reem, executive director for Mission of Hope, said the house and land was purchased for about $12,000. An area resident donated $75,000 for renovations. Another donation helped to buy metal bunk beds and sealed mattresses, making the shelter ready to open any day, Reem said.

'These people, it's just amazing how much they bless you but they don't want any credit. They just want to do it,” Reem said. 'I had said to the staff, ‘We need to get mattresses and the bunk beds and furnishings so we can get the shelter open. I don't have it.' I had a figure ... over $8,000. Being faith-based, I said ‘I'm just going to give it to God and let him take care of it.' This particular day I'm making lunch at Mission of Hope. I'm standing over a pot on the stove, have my hair net on, my apron on. The staff come in to say there are two men out here in trench coats that want to meet with you.”

Reem said a man and his son donated $10,000 on behalf of an organization that wanted to remain private.

Now that the shelter has all the materials it needs, Reem said, it could start housing homeless women now.

The only thing holding organizers back is a lack of money to pay women's shelter staff, she said.

'It's going to add three staff to the payroll,” Reem said. 'That's a stretch for us right now.”

Mission of Hope set a goal of raising $75,000 before the shelter opens.

'We don't want to open and then say, ‘Oops, we don't have the money,'” Reem said. 'It's really all about giving them opportunities and most of all giving them the opportunity to help themselves.”

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