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FUNDING CUTS
Restore funding for Iowa youth
shelters
The pleas for help come from around the state.
- “Last week we got a call from a grandmother who
is being denied services for a 14-year-old grandson who won't go to
school, doesn't come home, is becoming abusive and smoking
cigarettes. DHS is telling her they can't help,” said Beth Andrew,
director of Quakerdale's shelter in Newton. There's room at
Quakerdale for kids like that, but no money to take them in because
the Department of Human Services is spending fewer dollars on
shelter. Last year Quakerdale averaged 13 teens a day. Now it's down
to seven.
- Andy Ross, director of the Lamoni shelter, said a
closing date has been set for February 28. The 25-bed facility was
full a few years ago. Now it houses six kids who will have to find
somewhere else to go next month. Ross said facilities like the
Lamoni shelter are needed “for emergencies and to get kids out of
unsafe homes.”
- At Hillcrest Family Services shelter in Dubuque,
executive director Gary Gansemer said families calling Human
Services for help are being told the emphasis is on serving younger
kids. “Troubled teenagers are not a priority now,” he said.
- Tracey Peet of Francis Lauer Youth Shelter in
Mason City said the shelter had about eight kids each day in the
middle of last year. In December the number was down to about three.
Instead of getting help early, she said, kids may to get in so much
trouble that law enforcement is involved before receiving shelter
placement.
- Scott Thomas, director of South Central Shelter
in Indianola, said the shelter averaged eight kids in January 2004.
A year later, it averages four.
- Youth Emergency Services and Shelter in Des
Moines had about 56 kids in shelter care last year. Now it has half
that. “I wonder what's happening to the young people. I wonder where
those kids are going,” said director Mike Fritz.
Good question. Just because the money has disappeared
to pay for shelter care doesn't mean kids no longer need help. Perhaps
their problems get so bad the court orders them into the child welfare
system. Or they go without help. According to state Senator Jack Hatch,
money for shelters has been “reduced way too much . . . We're not even
taking care of kids and families.” Three years ago, the Department of
Human Services received about $110 million in state money for child
welfare, Hatch said. Those are dollars that pay for everything from
shelters to family foster care. Last year it received $98 million. “The
Legislature and the governor are not putting enough money into child
welfare programs,” he said.
That's for sure.
According to the Coalition for Family and Children's
Services, 132 fewer children will be served in shelters each day this
year than were served last year. These are some of Iowa's most needy
kids. A child removed from a house with a meth lab. A runaway. A teen
who is threatening a parent. Shelters provide an immediate safety net
for kids facing every kind of problem imaginable. Now the dollars aren't
there to pay for their stays. This should be a wake-up call to the Iowa
Legislature. Lawmakers must appropriate enough money to care for Iowa's
most troubled youths. Shelters provide help for kids like the abusive
14-year-old whose grandmother needs a break.
Now where is he going to go?
31 January 2005
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050131/OPINION03/501310313/1110
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