Utah temporary homeless numbers reach all-time high, By Brooke Adams, April 30, 2012, Salt Lake Tribune: “A statewide effort to get chronically homeless people off the streets and into supported housing continues to make progress, but officials on Mondayannounced the number of Utahns who experienced periodic homelessness reached an all-time high this winter. Volunteers and outreach workers counted 3,052 people in shelters and another 475 on the streets in the statewide Point In Time annual survey that began Jan. 26 and extended over five days to ensure as complete a tally as possible. On an annualized basis, state officials project that 16,642 people experienced an episode of homelessness between January 2011 and January 2012, an increase of 13 percent. Gordon Walker, director of the Division of Housing and Community Development, said Monday during a press conference that the increase was directly related to the weak economy and the end of a federal stimulus housing fund aimed at getting people out of shelters and into their own homes as quickly as possible…”
Goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2015 ‘achievable,’ advocates say, By Marjorie Cortez, April 30 2012, Deseret News: “Mike Shannon has designs on one of the first meals he will cook in his new apartment at Sunrise Metro Apartments. ‘I want a Velveeta grilled cheese sandwich and a can of tomato soup,’ Shannon said. Shannon, a Vietnam War veteran who has been living in The Road Home homeless shelter for nine months, will have a place to call his own Tuesday in a 100-unit facility that provides housing and intensive case management for people who are chronically homeless. A place of his own – a restroom he doesn’t have to share with others – represents ‘freedom’ and ‘a life’ for the 61-year-old man…”
Number of homeless in Utah keeps dropping, By Patty Henetz, May 11, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah’s homeless population shrank by 8.2 percent between January 2010 and this January, Lt. Gov. Greg Bell and other state officials announced Wednesday. The number of chronically homeless, defined as those who have been homeless for more than a year, dropped by 26 percent. Bell attributed the drop to Utah’s Housing First Initiative, a collaboration between government, nonprofit and private agencies that has built hundreds of units in permanent supportive communities since 2005 and is planning still more…”
Chronic homelessness continues on a downward trend in Utah, By Wendy Leonard, May 12, 2011, Deseret News: “Chronic homelessness in Utah is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Numbers are down for the sixth straight year as the state’s Housing First initiative continues to prove itself. ‘What is surprising to me is that people are willing to give up the freedom of the streets,’ Pamela Atkinson, an well-known advocate for the homeless in Utah, said Wednesday. For years, homeless people were offered treatment for whatever ailed them and caused them to be without a home, ‘but now we know they need housing first,’ she said…”
Shelters try ‘housing first’ protocol to help homeless people, By Bill Laitner, December 29, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “An innovative way to help homeless people, called housing first, has dramatically shortened their stays in the South Oakland Shelter system based in Royal Oak and could make shelter programs statewide more effective, experts said. By making permanent housing the first priority at the South Oakland Shelter and addressing other needs — such as job training — later, average stays dropped from four months to 28 days since summer, Executive Director Ryan Hertz said. The organization houses an average of 30 men, women and children at a time, rotating them through 67 churches and synagogues, where volunteers set up cots and serve meals. ‘We’re turning over our beds much faster, so we can help more people,’ Hertz said. But the housing-first approach has taken more than a decade to gain wide acceptance across Michigan because it requires homeless people, shelters’ clients, to have incomes, and there must be safe housing available that they can afford, Wayne State University psychologist and homelessness expert Paul Toro said…”
New face of homelessness is a family, Dallas-area agencies say, By Kim Horner, January 7, 2011, Dallas Morning News: “First, they stayed with family. Then, they rented a trailer. Finally, they went to a shelter. Katrina Stephens, Alan Charles Walker and their three young children became homeless after Walker’s construction work dried up. Now, the family lives in a modest East Dallas apartment as part of Family Gateway’s transitional housing program. Stephens plans to finish school to become a medical assistant this spring. ‘We’re back on track,’ she said. The economy has taken a similar toll on thousands of families nationwide – and the numbers are rising. About 80,000 families – typically a single woman with young children – are homeless on any given night, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Families are the fastest-growing homeless population, according to Family Gateway and other local agencies…”
