Will Utah end chronic homelessness in 2015?, By Christopher Smart, October 18, 2014, Salt Lake Tribune: “When Joseph Hardy and his three siblings were young, his mother took them from his polygamist father and bolted. They spent the next decade on the run — camping in the summers, crashing with friends when they could, and grabbing an inexpensive rental when the money held out. ‘I feel like I grew up in the back seat of a car,’ Hardy says today. At age 15, he began using methamphetamine to dull his grief and anxiety. Drug use and depression have ravaged his health, and he’s spent about 14 years of his life behind bars. But the last time he was arrested, Hardy was offered a new choice: treatment and his own apartment, with support from a caseworker to help him shape a new life…”
Tag: Chronic homelessness
Homelessness and Housing First – Utah
- Utah praised for initiative to end chronic homelessness, By Christopher Smart, October 8, 2014, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah is making national headlines for a successful initiative to end chronic homelessness — it’s down 72 percent since 2005 — as the 11th Annual Utah Homeless Summit convenes Wednesday in Salt Lake City. The number of chronic homeless — people who have been without housing for more than a year or who have been homeless four times in three years — has dropped in the state from 1,932 in 2005 to 539 this year. But the overall number of homeless during that period has remained at about 13,600. Most of those people will find housing within a 12-month period, according to the ‘2014 Utah Comprehensive Report on Homelessness,’ released Wednesday…”
- Affordable housing helps prevent, cures homelessness in Utah, new report says, By Marjorie Cortez, October 8, 2014, Deseret News: “Affordable housing is not only a key to preventing homelessness, it’s the cure to chronic homelessness, officials say. But Utah’s needs far outstrip the state’s ability to build affordable housing. Utah needs some 44,000 units of affordable housing statewide to keep pace with demand, according to federal and state estimates. When a segment of Utahns can’t afford housing, they’re at great risk of becoming homeless…”
Homelessness – Los Angeles, CA
Skid row: Renewed push for cleanups, social services for homeless, By Gale Holland, August 5, 2014, Los Angeles Times: “Acknowledging that law enforcement alone had failed to end homelessness on skid row, officials launched a city-county initiative Tuesday to bring social services and enhanced cleanups to the 50-block downtown Los Angeles district. ‘The seriousness of the situation makes this much more than a police issue,’ Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar said at a City Hall news conference. Starting this week, city and county agencies will go into the streets to offer health and housing services to the estimated 1,700 people living in tents and cardboard boxes in the most concentrated homeless enclave in the nation…”