An illustration of a homeless man in Cache Valley. There are a number of different organizations and church’s, government agencies, service clubs and volunteers that were involved in trying to help people living on the streets.
LOGAN – This year’s homeless count will begin in Cache Valley on Wednesday Jan. 26, and the early morning on Thursday, Jan. 27 and will go until the early morning of Saturday, Jan. 29. Those who help with the count will be up and counting between 3 a.m. until 6 a.m.
The count will give surveyors a snapshot of what conditions are, where they are staying and the number of people surviving on in streets.
David Zook, the Cache County Executive, says Cache Valley has more homelessness than most people realize.
We may not see tent cities like they have in bigger cities. There may not be other obvious visible signs of homelessness in Cache Valley, but they’re here.
One of the reasons we don’t see obvious signs of people living on the streets is because of a group called The Bear River Local Homelessness Council (LHC), Northern Utah’ s multi-agency homeless coalition in Box Elder County, Cache County, and Rich County. Since 2007 a group of about 20 organizations has been meeting once a month to discuss the growing issue of people living cars, tents, storage facilities, trailers and other places without modern amenities.
Former Utah Senate President Wayne Niederhauser was named the state’s homeless service director and he asked Zook if he would be the government official to lead the local group. After being appointed County Executive he attended some of the local homeless council’s meetings.
“My first impression was it is a much bigger problem in our valley than I thought,” Zook said.
The first meeting was when he realized all of the different church’s, government agencies, service organizations and volunteers that were involved in trying to help people living on the streets.
“I shocked by the numbers of individuals we talked about. I think there were 40 families struggling at that time,” Zook said. “I was not aware that the problem was that bad and I wanted to learn more about how we could do more to help.”
He said people were struggling with a variety of issues. They were economic, some domestic violence, mental illness and others were based on no housing available. For those economically challenged it could be job loss or not having enough income to pay for a place to live because housing prices were too high.
“We don’t have a homeless shelter and we don’t have enough affordable housing” Zook said. “When affordable housing opens up it is taken quickly.”
The County manager is passionate about tackling the issue of homelessness and he has been impressed with how many organizations went to work and did not wait for the government to get involved.
“We are in the initial phase of analyzing the issue and trying to figure out how we can be the most helpful,” he said. “One of the things we are working on with Representative Dan Johnson and the state legislature is make sure Cache Valley gets to keep the sales tax that is set aside for homelessness in the state.”
A part of Utah State sales tax is used to help alleviate homelessness.
Lucas Martin from the Bear River Association of Governments said LHC is a multi-agency group that includes representatives from BRAG, CAPSA, CVVA, Families Feeding Families and other grassroots groups trying to make a difference in the community
“They may not be living in tents in the downtown area where people can see them, but there are still here,” Martin said. “There are some homeless people dispersed canyons.
“Sometimes, a family will be displaced when the landlord sells their apartment, and they don’t have enough money to find a new place. Or the money runs out and they have no place to go so they are living in a car waiting for a paycheck.”
There are families living in cars, he said, but the longer a family stays in the car the more it effects the father’s work performance and the kids have a harder time in school when living out of their car.
“Last year the Coalition came up with a homeless plan,” Martin said. “They’ve been working with public officials trying to locate individuals and families so we can find ways to help them.”
Jill Anderson, CEO of CAPSA, is a also member of the LHC. She said they coordinate approximately 38 households a month.
The meeting gives all the participants a way to coordinate together the best recourses to the neediest first.
“We house an average of 20 families a month,” she said. “That only represents the individuals that we evaluated and placed in shelters.”
They have tools that rank people in crisis accurately from the most vulnerable and highest risk to others that might not as much need help.
“If you have nothing over your head or they are domestic violence victim that will elevate their risk of safety,” she said. “We housed and average of 20 people a month.”
In November CAPSA had 28 people in their emergency shelter system and they had 22 families in their housing program.
“We own 21 units, and we also have scatter sites that we typically have 28 families housed in,” Anderson said. “We shelter over 300 individuals a year for some of those we rent hotel rooms.”
The organization has a $10,000 month hotel bill for people needing shelter.
CAPSA typically serves 1,200 individuals a year that don’t need shelter but are survivors of domestic abuse.
“BRAG, CVVA, Family Feeding Families, 4 Helping Hearts are all grassroots groups that have popped up to meet the needs of our homeless population,” she said. “We all network and help each other it is amicable system of cooperation between the different agencies.”
Anderson said people can help by being aware of their surroundings. The largest sub population is domestic abuse victims that doesn’t minimize the unmet needs of the homeless populations. Statistic show 50 percent of women and children immediate cause 80 percent their homeless the largest population of we don’t want that me.
“When you see things let Law Enforcement or BRAG know,” she said. “People might wonder or see that Logan City Police and BRAG have just recently received some extra funds. We will be going to those people and offering support.”
There is a housing crunch right now and Anderson is working with BRAG on a collaborative approached Neighborhood Non-Profit Corporation about getting more affordable places for people to live.
“We are trying to develop a plan for the affordable housing we need,” Anderson said. “Josh Runharr the executive director of Neighborhood Non-Profit Corporation is trying obtain government funding so all of the non-profits can all secure affordable housing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people in our community. “
Some of the people CAPSA is helping may even be at risk at of being killed by their abuser.
“We hope community members will keep and eye out and let CAPSA know if they see people who are in hiding and a need shelter and other basic needs,” she said. “That’s were CAPSA needs help. The homeless need advocacy and support and we need the community to watch out for people in crisis so they can get help.”
Anderson said as the community continues to grow and if we don’t see affordable housing in Cache Valley we will see tent cities because we won’t have the resources to house people that need it.
“We are paying an average of $10,000 a month to hotels to house the homeless in our area,” Anderson said. “The largest sub population of homeless families are victims of domestic abuse.”
Community based nonprofits provide a lot of resources to help individuals in crisis and keep them away from people who want to prey on our homeless population.
“We are grateful David Zook got involved and got a first-hand look at how these not profits work,” Anderson said. “Matt Whitaker is also a huge component in making everything work. We could not do what we do without his support.”
With three hundred people in the shelters every year he helps us create foods boxes for families staying in the shelters and hotels.
To volunteer to help the homeless in the Bear River area can register online by contacting Jessica.Lucero@usu.edu or Jaynine Thompson at jayninet@brag.gov to volunteer to help count the unsheltered homeless people in the Bear River area.