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AN OPEN LETTER TO MELISSA O’NEIL, CEO of Central Iowa Shelter & Services, @CI_Shelter -
Dear Melissa,
We write to convey our shock at the inadequate and cruel response of CISS to the past week's polar vortex.
Dear Melissa,
We write to convey our shock at the inadequate and cruel response of CISS to the past week's polar vortex.
We also express concern regarding the conduct of your staff at Motel 6 on February 15th, 2021.
Several members of the community brought your wholly inadequate response to this natural disaster to our attention.
Several members of the community brought your wholly inadequate response to this natural disaster to our attention.
This, after the death of a houseless person due to exposure on Monday the 8th. Even during extreme weather, CISS turns people away who your staff deem "violent.” This is akin to a death sentence by exposure.
Other observations reported to us included that pets are not allowed in CISS. This forces folks on the margin to abandon a loved companion to the elements to save themselves.
Worse still, CISS does not respect houseless people's autonomy when housed at CISS, and many of your clients have described a carceral atmosphere inside the facility.
In order to ensure that no one else would have to risk death by exposure during the polar vortex, the undersigned helped move more than 160 houseless residents to hotel rooms that were paid for with community donations.
Pets were allowed, no one was turned away, and we have heard no reports of further death from exposure in the city since our efforts began.
While at the hotel we’re using, we’ve sought to ensure that the people’s basic needs were met.
While at the hotel we’re using, we’ve sought to ensure that the people’s basic needs were met.
This included ensuring that their privacy was respected. For this reason, we denied your staff access to the list of rooms we’d booked on Feb 14th. We were disheartened to learn that your staff went around us and obtained that information directly from the hotel.
In addition to this was a violation of ethics, it was also illegal. Additionally, it appears that our guest’s confidential information was further shared by CISS with another organization.
A member of our collective spoke to one of your staff on February 15th regarding our concerns. They acknowledged that a CISS staff member had gotten the information from the front desk, but didn’t seem concerned with the fact that this may have been an illegal act.
She insisted the violation was justified because it was "in the client’s best interest." From our point of view, you cannot act in someone else’s best interest without their consent. And the best way to aid another first begins with respecting their agency and their privacy.
We demand that CISS respect all people's autonomy, especially the houseless people it claims to serve, and that they cease any illegal and unethical means to access individual's private information.
We further implore CISS to make winter amnesty actually universal, that is, to turn no one away for any reason, including behavioral history or presence of companion animals.
Perhaps next winter, CISS can find in its $4,000,000 budget enough money to put people up in hotels or elsewhere, it considers "too dangerous" to allow inside their facility.
Signed,
Des Moines Mutual Aid
Edna Griffin Mutual Aid
Des Moines BLM
DSM Street Medics
The Supply Hive
Great Plains Action Society
Des Moines Mutual Aid
Edna Griffin Mutual Aid
Des Moines BLM
DSM Street Medics
The Supply Hive
Great Plains Action Society
