Johnson County Board of Supervisors Discuss Concerns Over County Staff Involvement with Salvation Army's Winter Daytime Warming Shelter

I shared last week that the Salvation Army will be hosting a temporary winter daytime warming shelter here in Iowa City in order to provide warmth and protection during the winter months. It opened this week on the 14th and will run through mid-March. The warming shelter will be open in the mornings at a time when other resources, such as the Shelter House and the Crisis Center are not available for access.

Johnson County Social Services' director spoke to the Board of Supervisors earlier today to discuss the warming shelter. One of the supervisors raised concerns about the fact that Johnson County General Assistance staff will spend about five hours monthly at the Salvation Army.

Supervisor Janelle Rettig was concerned that Johnson County staff can now work at any church in this community. Meanwhile, Supervisor Rod Sullivan and Social Services director Lynette Jacoby argued that this is a community program operated by the Local Homeless Coordinating Board (LHCB) and that it's taking place at the Salvation Army, but that it's not exactly a Salvation Army program.

Rettig countered that a Salvation Army press release clearly advertised that it was their program and that others were going to be staffing it and that this was an unjust mingling of tax dollars for church programming. She also argued that the Salvation Army was describing the program as their program on their website and that people who wanted to volunteer there were being asked to sign up with the Salvation Army. (Jon's Note: I just checked and I'm not seeing that at all. But it's very likely that somebody contacted the Salvation Army after this meeting that that it's been removed from the website since this morning.)

Here are some Facebook posts that have arisen since this morning on the subject:


and...

Bottom line: The majority of the Board of Supervisors supports this temporary daytime warming center and members of the General Assistance staff will spend about five hours per month there assisting shelter participants with things like food assistance applications.

There was an interesting observation from the Social Services staff at this BOS meeting that GA staff regularly refer community members to church-sponsored events that provide a variety of services, including food, clothing, school supplies, and Christmas gifts. We do it also at my program. But we're certainly not serving as volunteers at those programs -- certainly not during work hours anyway. Rettig's concerns about church/state co-mingling certainly exists here and I'm sure that this conversation will come up again in local politics.