Iowa County needs someone to manage general relief program

MARENGO — As the State of Iowa takes control of mental health services and lays off local employees, Iowa County finds itself in need of someone to take over its general relief program.

Iowa County Mental Health Liaison Marilyn Austin, who has been taking care of general relief applications for Iowa County while working for East Central Mental Health Region, explained the change to Iowa County Supervisors during their Jan. 31 meeting but confessed that she didn’t have a solution to offer.

The State of Iowa formed mental health regions in 2014, taking control of mental health services away from counties and putting it in the hands of 14 regions required to provide access to a core set of services to a target population of individuals with a mental illness or intellectual disability.

Iowa County is part of the East Central Region which includes Linn, Johnson, Benton, Jones, Buchanan, Delaware, Dubuque and Bremer Counties.

Now the state is consolidating mental health services again, creating seven districts and dismissing many region employees, including Austin. The new districts will begin operating in July.

“The change will not disrupt services,” Austin told Supervisors in August. She didn’t think anyone but employees would notice a difference.

Last month Austin confirmed that the new mental health district will not keep local employees, and the state will take over only those tasks that deal with mental health service, so Iowa County will have to find someone else to manage its general relief program.

Austin was willing to continue managing the program, but that isn’t feasible for her logistically.

Austin said she started as social service director in 1985. “We just covered anything that fell under the purview of social services,” she said. That included mental health services.

Even then, rumors were circulating that the state was planning to take over mental health services, she said.

“As of June 30, counties are completely out of mental health service,” Austin said. She isn’t happy with the change.

“I believe in grassroots services provision,” Austin told Supervisor in August. “And this isn’t grassroots anymore.”

When services were under control of the county, Austin knew the clients and could make decisions right away. Regional bosses don’t know the clients, and taking requests up the ladder takes more time, Austin said.

Counties that have other agencies administering their General Relief Program won’t need to change anything, but in Iowa County, Austin has been managing the program.

Counties are required by law to provide emergency relief for needy people, relief for the poor and relief of an extended nature, according to the second amendment to County Home Rule Ordinance No. 28.

A needy person is a family or person that is transient in the county for less than three days and needs immediate relief, the ordinance says.

Poor people are those who live in Iowa County and, because of physical or mental disability, cannot find gainful employment or otherwise make a living.

Relief includes food, rent, shelter, clothing, emergency telephone service, fuel, lights and limited medial attention, but not cigarettes or alcoholic beverages, laundry soap, household cleaners or personal hygiene items.

Austin said most of the applications she receives are for rent and utilities. She checks the applications against the rules and grants or denies the request.

Austin estimated that the county receives about 20 applications a year.

The rules are pretty restrictive, said Austin. A family of three must make less than $426 a month to qualify. “You can see why we don’t get very many applications.”

County general relief also provides funeral benefits. “Seems like in the spring we get more funerals than we budgeted for,” Austin said.

The general relief budget is only $17,000 a year, a small amount in terms of money, but the county has to provide it, Austin said.

“I think some counties contract with Public Health to do it,” said Austin. Supervisors mentioned Veterans Affairs, which provides resources to veterans, but decided that agency has its hands full already.

Some county auditors take care of general relief applications, said Austin, but Supervisors also balked at adding to the Iowa County Auditor’s duties.

The county can’t justify hiring someone for the position with so few applicants, said Supervisor Kevin Heitshusen.

Austin said she’d be happy to teach whoever the county taps to take over general relief. “It’s really simple,” she said, and it doesn’t take long to do.

“Our county might have the fewest applications in the state,” said Austin. “At one time Benton County was doing 60-70 applications a month.” Iowa County is an elderly county and the general relief income guidelines are very low.

Auditor Brandy Enochson said the county has granted three general relief requests this fiscal year.

The county has three days to review an application and make a judgment and must inform the applicant of the decision within two days after that, Austin said.

If the income listed on the application is above the allowable maximum, the application can be rejected immediately, said Austin.

People who use general relief are typically unemployed. If they have children, they won’t qualify and they will be referred to Health and Human Services.

They usually find employment or get disability, Austin said.

A person can receive funds from general relief only three times in a calendar year, said Austin.

Heitshusen lamented the State’s take over of the mental health services and the loss of Austin and her services.

“You’re going from grassroots to bureaucracy,” Austin said. That never makes things better, she said.