Advocates' efforts yield 100 apartments for homeless in Utah

A call made a year ago to rally around Utah's chronically homeless residents has been answered and then some, attendees at Utah's fourth annual Homeless Summit were told last week.

Utah advocates' efforts have brought 100 apartments on line and will add 200 more between now and next October, according to an annual report distributed at the summit Wednesday by the Utah Homeless Management Information System.

The nation's top advocate to end homelessness told the 300 or so summit attendees that Utah's commitment to a communitywide approach to ending homelessness encourages cities nationwide.

Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said a pilot project statewide that finds permanent or transitional housing situations and then addresses underlying causes of an individual's homelessness has significantly improved the lives of individuals and families.

One of the key elements of the Utah approach is the interaction and strategizing of front-end service providers for people in crisis. They work together to connect people who are in need of stabilizing services such as schools, transportation, and mental-health and substance-abuse services, she said.

"The quicker families get into housing, get connected to service providers and receive a continuum of services, the more likely they will spend much less time in the homelessness system," she said.

Between July 1, 2006, and June 30, 2007, the number of shelter and housing clients in each of the 42 local service-providing agencies statewide totaled 6,398. The most — 4,608 — were in Salt Lake City. The area with the second-largest group was the five-county area in southwest Utah, with 989. The Weber County area was third, with 905. The Carbon/Emery counties region had 205.

Four areas of the state — the Bear River region in northwestern Utah, the six counties in south-central Utah, as well as San Juan and Tooele counties — reported no shelter or housing clients during the past year.

About half of the people served are considered chronically homeless. The annual homeless management report estimates that the overall homeless population is actually 26 percent higher than client survey and monitoring records indicate.

Some homeless people are families who are "moving from house to house, unstably doubled up with friends and family," Roman said. In 2005, a survey by the National Alliance showed that 44 percent of the nation's homeless people fall into that category.