KDSN RADIO News
Mason City homeless shelters over capacity in November, December
Forecasters say bitterly cold temperatures will return to Iowa this weekend and Jesse Germundson, executive director of the Northern Lights Alliance for the Homeless in Mason City, says they will not turn someone seeking shelter away.
“When it gets this cold, we feel as a group and as a board and as staff and volunteers that we have a moral duty to the community that we serve to take these individuals off the streets because it gets very dangerous very quickly,” Germundson says. “People encountering homelessness or becoming homeless themselves, need to connect with us in downtown Mason City and we will do our best to house you and give you a place to stay for a short period of time.”
The group serves homeless individuals in a nine-county region. During November and December, 72 people stayed at least one night in one of the group’s shelters.
“We generally have 300 to 350 people stay in our shelters on any given year and the average is 15 to 30 days each,” he says. “We see people coming from all over. With the interstate in our community and the highway system that we have as well as Mercy Medical Center, we get people from Des Moines, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit.”
The organization operates a shelter for women and children and another shelter for men. Over the past two months, Germundson says they’ve been over capacity. He says they’re stretched trying to help low income people passing through Mason City as well as residents who need help after finding a longer-term place to stay or completing one of the group’s sober living programs.
“We helped over 100 individuals with food, clothing, hygiene, bus tokens (and) other diversions like bus tickets and gas money, toothbrushes and toothpaste,” he says. “We serve our clients the best we can.”
The Northern Lights Alliance applied to a state agency distributing federal pandemic relief money and is now using a $137,000 grant to do things like provide rental assistance, help cover utility bills, and hire another staff member. The organization operates two sober living homes for men in the early days of recovery from an addiction as well as two shelters.
