Homeless collaboration beneficial

A unique collaboration among state and local government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private sector has resulted in significant gains in addressing chronic homelessness in Utah.

For starters, nearly 200 housing units for the chronic homeless are under construction. A 100-unit project, the Sunrise Apartments in downtown Salt Lake City, is scheduled to open in March. Earlier this week officials broke ground on an 84-unit apartment complex in South Salt Lake. These milestones are quite impressive.

Housing is one component of ending chronic homelessness, which officials define as being homeless for more than one year or four times over a three-year period. Among Utah's homeless population, believed to be about 15,000 people, approximately 2,000 are classified as chronically homeless.

Yes, the chronic homeless need places to live. But they also need to address the issues that contribute to their homeless state. Some have a constellation of problems that stand in the way of self-sufficiency. The issues range from addiction, poor educational attainment, physical illness, domestic violence, mental illness or no job skills. Utah's collaboration also includes intensive case management that helps link homeless people to services that can help them attain self-sufficiency.

The chronic homeless range from people who thrive once they have a stable place to live to people for whom self-sufficiency may never be possible.

Advocates say Utah's collaborative model has received national notice. State officials say they are confident that a year from now, that the state will have more milestones to celebrate with respect to chronic homelessness.

Homeless prevention must also be a high priority. Some people are but a paycheck away from losing their housing. Given the very poor rate of personal savings in this nation, many households' budgets can be wiped out by medical bills, the cost of auto repairs or some other large, unforeseen expense.

But credit Utah officials for their understanding that a collaborative approach is needed to address the many facets of homelessness and eventually transition those who are able to a point where they can achieve self-sufficiency. We look forward to future progress reports.