Linn County shelter will open at Fillmore Center

Aug. 28--CEDAR RAPIDS -- The Veterans Memorial Building will close Saturday morning to residents seeking shelter.

But the city of Cedar Rapids has worked with Linn County to open the Fillmore Center starting Saturday to temporarily house residents through Sept. 30 as some still remain displaced after the Aug. 10 derecho ravaged parts of Iowa with hurricane-force winds.

Less than a dozen residents stayed at the Veterans Memorial shelter as of Thursday night as some stay in hotels or have found other temporary housing arrangements while their homes are repaired. City officials continue to work with various social services agencies to provide intermediate and long-term shelter solutions for residents whose homes were damaged and made uninhabitable.

The city will seek federal reimbursement for the cost of the overflow shelter facility at the Fillmore Center, 520 11th St. NW in Cedar Rapids, said Emily Breen, the city development services communications coordinator.

"Willis Dady (Homeless Services) will lead operations and Waypoint (Services) will continue to help coordinate services to help work toward transitional housing," Breen said.

"We continue to coordinate the critical housing needs of our most vulnerable populations with the Department of Human Services and local service providers."

City Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt said the Fillmore can shelter about 60, and there have been 20 to 30 people in the Veterans Memorial shelter -- though that number has been decreasing.

She said the city will continue to meet those needs in coordination with Cedar Rapids' shelter providers.

Josh Murray, regional communications director for the American Red Cross-Iowa-Nebraska region, said many who stayed in the Red Cross shelter at Veterans Memorial have been able to return home or find long-term housing solutions.

For those remaining at the Veterans Memorial shelter, Murray said the Red Cross is "working with them and connecting them with community partners to identify more long-term lodging options."

The overflow shelter opening Saturday will house some of the residents whom he said were housed precariously before the derecho.

As of Thursday morning, Murray said the Red Cross has provided 626 overnight stays in its shelters and just under 1,500 overnight stays in hotels since the storm hit. Red Cross tracks overnight stays because some people stay one night while others remain over multiple nights.

"Part of our service is setting up plans that help get residents on the road to recovery and that will continue after they transition out of the shelter," Murray said. "We will continue to play a role in helping families and communities recover in the weeks and months ahead."

Murray said Red Cross caseworkers work with any individuals affected by a disaster to plan for recovery, and that assistance is not limited to those who come to the shelters.

"This could include connecting people with existing social services programs in their communities, helping them complete forms and paperwork for assistance or insurance claims, getting them counseling, identifying child care resources, assisting with the process to replace lost prescription medicine or helping to locate new housing," Murray said.

The Iowa Department of Human Services has placed about 98 people in temporary housing, spokesman Matt Highland said.

Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management secured the rooms, while the Department of Human Services has been organizing and authorizing who uses them.

There are 32 rooms available until Sept. 5 and 25 rooms available until Sept. 6, according to Highland.

The Catherine McAuley Center and Intercultural Center of Iowa are working with displaced households "on an individual basis to determine their intermediate and long-term housing needs," he said. These organizations are also helping to assess individual needs such as completing referrals and applications to other programs and resources, including Federal Emergency Management Agency applications and SNAP food replacement.

This is a transitional period, Pratt said Thursday, so the city's next step will be to continue to communicate with people who need housing after meeting immediate shelter requirements.

Many Cedar Rapids residents still are contacting insurance companies and figuring out how long it will take to rebuild their homes, Pratt noted.

In the meantime, the city also has expanded the in-town use of recreational vehicles so residents can stay in them temporarily.

Residents may stay in travel trailers, motor homes and campers on a temporary basis. The city will permit recreational vehicles as temporary housing until Nov. 15 in all Cedar Rapids zoning districts and will consider extensions on a case-by-case basis.

Applicants are required to apply for a zoning clearance permit, which can be accessed online at https://bit.ly/3jfPW2N. Residents should email completed applications to [email protected] or drop them off at the City Services Center, 500 15th Ave. SW.

"During this period we are going to be looking at all options for how we can meet those interim needs and we will be reaching out to our state and federal partners to get the resources we need to do that," Pratt said.

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