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Help
Us Provide Emergency
Shelter This Winter
There are between 600 and 900 homeless people in the Cedar
Falls-Waterloo metro area. These are people who have no
family or friends who can provide shelter for them, so they
rely on the limited number of beds available in local homeless shelters.
Permanent
shelters operated by the Salvation Army and the Waterloo
Catholic Worker provide beds for about 54 persons, and the
number of nights a homeless person can stay in the shelters is
limited.
During most of
the year, homeless people who cannot find shelter in one of the
permanent shelters sleep outdoors, in vehicles, or in abandoned
buildings. These options are severely restricted when the
weather turns cold and staying outdoors or in unheated
facilities becomes uncomfortable and dangerous.
The Cedar
Valley Hospitality House and local faith
communities are working to provide emergency overnight shelter
for the homeless in Waterloo this winter. These
accommodations would provide a warm, safe sleeping facilities for people who cannot be accommodated in the area's permanent
shelters.
An ad hoc
committee which examined several options decided that at the
present time the best option would be to finish repairs on a new
location for the Hospitality House day shelter and rent the
present Hospitality House space for emergency overnight shelter
during the winter.
Our goal is to
have these emergency overnight facilities available by January
15, and to provide
emergency shelter for the months of January, February and March.
We estimate the cost of providing emergency overnight shelter
this winter at $800 to $1,000 per month.
We
will count on volunteers who can help staff the shelter and financial
contributions to underwrite the costs of operating a temporary overnight
shelter.
Two-person
volunteer teams will help supervise the
shelter. Orientation and support for volunteers would be
provided by local agencies which work with the homeless. The
Waterloo Police Department has agreed to designate a liaison
officer for the shelter and to provide police presence as much
as possible.
Contributions may be made to: Interfaith Homeless Fund and may
be mailed or deposited at Community National Bank locations.
Click here
to tell us how you can help.
For More Information
For information about the emergency winter shelter, contact:
Joni Hansen,
Cedar Valley Hospitality House
319-290-2025 /
email: boscoebell@hotmail.com
Pastor Patricia
Jacobs, Westminster Prebysterian Church
319-234-5501 /
email: Patricia@wpcw.org
Dave Cushing,
Catholic Social Justice Network
319-233-2874 /
email: dbq208s3@arch.pvt.k12.ia.us
Posted 12.19.11 Last Update: 01.05.12 |