The United Way of Utah County’s Mountainland Continuum of Care Program organized a point-in-time count for people experiencing homelessness across Summit, Wasatch and Utah Counties earlier this year. The preliminary results paint a picture of homelessness across the Wasatch Back.
The count happened over three early mornings in January, during a big snowstorm. Still, Mountainland Continuum of Care Program Manager Heather Hogue says volunteers collected 97 surveys among the three counties, which is 15% more than last year. The numbers surprised Hogue—she says it can be difficult to find people when the weather is so bad.
“When snow hits like that, people hunker down, and they go places that they can't be found," Hogue said. "So, to me, this is indicative that we do have a rise in our numbers across the tri-county area, the fact that we were able to find this many people with such bad weather.”
The data is still being sorted, so there’s not much information yet about individual cases, but Hogue noted a recent shift between the number of homeless men and women. Five years ago, she estimates two-thirds of homeless individuals were men; now, it’s about a 50-50 split. Hogue says there’s not one reason for the shift, but it used to be easier for homeless services to secure housing for single women over single men. She pointed to the lack of affordable housing as a likely factor for why men and women are now more equally affected by homelessness.
“Across the state, we’re seeing like a 2% vacancy rate," Hogue said. "There's lots of apartments and condos going up, but they're not low-income, and so we're having a lot of difficulty with a shortage of available homes to put people in.”
In terms of local resources, social service providers such as the Christian Center of Park City can help people experiencing homelessness with food, clothes and counseling. But there’s no emergency shelter in Summit or Wasatch County. The closest is the Road Home in Salt Lake City, and in communities where it’s so cold during the winter, Hogue says it’s necessary to think outside the box to keep vulnerable people safe
“Some communities are doing things like a warming center, so if it gets too cold at night, they open a church building or they open a community center, so people can come in and stay warm through the night," Hogue said. "Some communities are utilizing hotel/motel vouchers, so they work with local hotels to get a good rate on a room, and then they procure funding to be able to put somebody in a room for a few days until the cold weather has passed enough that they’re safe again.”
The Park City Police watch log has recently reflected incidents of people presumed to be homeless seeking shelter in places such as the Old Town Transit Center, public restrooms and other covered spaces.
