'Fear and anguish': Fire at Shelter House's Fairweather Lodge displaces six

Editor's note: This story has been made free to read because the residents affected are some of our community's most at-risk. Read on to learn how you can help.

There were no physical injuries in Thursday afternoon's fire at the Fairweather Lodge on Amhurst Street, but the building's six residents now face new challenges after a single afternoon uprooted the lives they'd built together within its walls.

The facility is one of four run by Iowa City's Shelter House that provides permanent supportive, affordable housing to residents living with severe mental illness who are at increased risk of homelessness.

At 1:36 p.m. Thursday, Iowa City Fire arrived at the scene with flames coming through the front windows. The fire burned up the first floor and spread into the attic. Walking around the extinguished remains, the fire marshal estimated the damage to the building at $90,000.

"One tenant said to a caseworker, 'I lost everything to drugs and now I'm losing everything all over again'," Crissy Canganelli, the executive director of Shelter House, told the Press-Citizen. "... It's really difficult to put that loss into words — you can't describe that loss monetarily. That's the part that I'm really concerned about."

In addition to a commitment to daily medication support and psychiatric care and counseling, the house works as a peer system. Canganelli said one resident's family was willing to take them in Thursday as Shelter House determines how to rehouse the residents. The other five were scattered out across the organization's other lodges. This is a material change in residence but, for Canganelli, the concern was the stability and continuity residents had worked toward for the last three to four years.

"They've been coming home to one another every day and every night for a long time and now they're scattered about, not coming home to the same people — their chosen family," she said. "... They have all been displaced, and we have every reason to believe this displacement will be a long-term challenge."

"These people choose to live together and suddenly they are all somewhere different," Christine Ralston, Shelter House's director of development, added. "That's a support structure, routines that get them by, that help them move forward in managing their health."

One resident had a bright white Chevy Silverado parked at the house that had just been in for repairs. The resident made it out safely, but having left his keys inside, he watched the burning house smolder over something he'd worked hard for.

"This is a long-term evolution. This is people building a report and relationship and a long-term investment in being in that home," Canganelli said. "This is the fear and anguish that turned everything upside down."

When the Press-Citizen spoke with Canganelli Thursday evening, she said staff was working to pull together packages — items like winter coats for this weekend's projected snow — for the six residents, many of whom walked out of their home and onto Amherst Street with just the clothes on their backs.

"We are really low on donations right now because people aren't necessarily feeling as comfortable going out and dropping things off — we don't have any deodorant — and we don't the budget to purchase those things for people," Canganelli said.

"We are real low on donations everywhere."

Shelter House's immediate in-kind needs include toiletries, blankets, pillows, towels, men’s undergarments, coats and jackets sizes S to XXL and men’s shoes in size 10. The group is also accepting gift cards for the six men to replace items burned in the fire. Donations should be delivered to 429 Southgate Ave.

Cash donations can also be made online at ShelterHouseIowa.org/donate. 

Zachary Oren Smith writes about government, growth and development for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach him at zsmith@press-citizen.com, at 319 -339-7354 or on Twitter via @ZacharyOS.