IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) -- Iowa City's shelter house has found a location for its temporary winter housing. The emergency shelter will be on the city's south side.
The Johnson County Board of Supervisors donated the building at 821 South Clinton Street. The shelter will split the building with space leased to the Iowa City Fire Department for storage.
This is the fourth year the Shelter House will provide the no-rules type emergency shelter. At it's permanent location, people who use the shelter must agree to certain rules like sobriety. The winter location doesn't have those rules.
The emergency shelter will be open for 13 weeks. That starts at the beginning of December and runs through mid-March. During that time it will be open from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. each day.
In past years, Shelter House has served 150-175 more people in this emergency shelter. The organization also says police vagrancy calls have dropped 67-74% since it started the winter shelter four years ago.
The money to run this shelter comes from the cities of Iowa City and Coralville plus Johnson County and private donors.
On Giving Tuesday, November 28th, the Shelter House will hold a fundraising campaign called "Out of the Cold." The money raised during that event will go to the low-barrier winter shelter and the main one.