PROVO — A man sat quietly on a park bench in downtown Provo. He scrutinized his sandwich and ate slowly.

At first glance, it seemed the man was taking a leisurely lunch break.

But tatty blankets on either side of him revealed the man is most likely one of 29 reasons — at last count — the Utah County Chronic Homeless Task Force meets each month to build a pilot program to get him, and others like him, off the streets.

The program officially kicks off Monday, when two handpicked candidates will leave the Utah County Jail and move into apartments that will mostly be paid for by a state grant of some $60,000. The participants will work and meet with mentors, pay for a portion of their housing and eventually conquer their homelessness, the task force hopes.

"Homelessness in many respects is a symptom of many other problems, and not just the problem," said Bill Hulterstrom, president of United Way in Utah County, and a member of the task force.

The task force has been working for the past two years as a subcommittee of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care program to develop a system that will assist chronically homeless people.

Chronic homelessness in Utah County isn't as widespread or well-recognized as in Utah's more urban areas, but in January the point-in-time count of homeless people in the county was 29.

For the time being, the task force is focusing on assisting those who have a history of being in and out of the county jail, who are "trapped in the system," said the Rev. Richard Green, Utah County Jail chaplain.

"We take a person and incarcerate them for a number of months and then we put them on the street and tell them they have to pay $200 to $300 a week for fines and drug treatment," Green said. "How are we going to expect that person to have a job that will allow him to work around their drug treatment on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings? How in the world can you hold down a job, go to treatment and pay for everything?"

Green said many convicts lapse into their old illegal habits when they leave jail because they don't have enough money for their own residence. Eventually they end up in bad situations. Hopefully this program can help break that cycle, Green said.

Myla Dutton, a task force member and executive director of the Community Action Services and Food Bank in Utah, Wasatch and Summit counties, said the collaborative effort of everyone on the task force will have a greater impact in developing a long-term program.

The Utah County Department of Substance Abuse, United Way, Community Action Services and Food Bank, Center for Women and Children in Crisis, Wasatch Mental Health, Department of Workforce Services, Deseret Industries and Mountainland Association of Governments are involved in the effort.

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E-mail: achoate@desnews.com