Abel Castro

Craig Smith
Klaus Williams
Logan Johnson
Zach Meads
ENGL 1010-61

Homeless 1

We Dont Need Coins, We Need Change

Have you walked through downtown Salt Lake City lately? If you have Im sure youve
noticed the many homeless around. One of them might have even asked you for a handout. You
dont know whether the person asking you is actually homeless, if they want to better
themselves, are addicted to drugs or alcohol, or in desperate need of some help. This will leave
most people feeling guilty for not giving them money. Many people fall on hard times, some to
the point of losing everything. We want to try to reduce the homeless problem and grow as a
society.
There have been plenty of efforts in the past to try and solve this issue. Police in our city
are starting to crack down on drug dealers within the homeless population, there are also a
number of housing units, shelters, and treatment facilities available for use. The number of
homeless doesnt seem to drop very far, no matter what is tried. Our goal is to spread information
about the resources available to help the homeless in Salt Lake. We want to try to get more
people off the streets and into rehab and housing facilities.
Homelessness is detrimental to our communities and our inner cities. Drug abuse and
alcoholism run rampant in the homeless community; there is also a large population of people
with mental health illnesses. The homeless can be seen everywhere. Local businesses, malls,
community parks, and even our highways. They have become a burden on the taxpayers due to
their frequent hospital trips, jail stays, and the devaluation personal properties as a result of
squatting. They are also tying up police departments, fire departments, and emergency medical

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services do to their frequent altercations. The city has even added a non-emergency hotline for
the downtown Salt Lake City area because of the homeless (Salt Lake City launches war on
homeless problems).On payday, someone might go on a trip to our local grocery store, and
before they can get out of their car, they will be hassled by a panhandler asking for money. Most
of these people are homeless. Some panhandlers are polite, while some are aggressive and
forceful. Thats not something we need in our community for anyone, especially the elderly, or
single parents who dont have a lot of money.
From our personal experience weve seen the homeless use the restrooms in public parks
to get high, receive sexual services for money, and even to sleep inside. They pick through the
public garbage, leaving trash all over the ground. People sleep on the pavement, creating
homemade shelters using tents, tarps, blankets, and stolen shopping carts. They place these
makeshift homes on the sidewalk, making pedestrians walk on the road.
The Gateway Mall, which is situated between West High School and The Road Home
Emergency Shelter, has struggled financially in recent years because no one wants to shop there
because of the high concentration or homeless people in the area. High school students who go to
the mall at lunch are at risk of being subjected to drug and alcohol influences. Abel one of our
group members, a West High graduate, has first-hand experience with the interactions between
the school, the shelter, and the decline of the mall.
Pioneer Park is another hotspot of the homeless population. The park is only a few blocks
away from the homeless shelter. Being so close together provides easy access for the homeless
people. They have overrun the park, and the drug dealers have followed. The police regularly
patrol the park, but the large population of homeless has made it difficult for the police to do
their job.

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Jordan Park is one of the other notorious areas for homeless, alcoholics, and addicts who
frequently sleep in the park by the river. Homeless people often take shopping carts from
neighboring grocery stores to carry their belongings in. Sometimes the carts get dumped in the
river or left in the park. The homeless will often go through trash looking for food, clothing, or
valuables. When they are done going through the trash, quite often it gets left on the ground for
someone else to clean up.
The large homeless populations in these parks make it uncomfortable for families,
joggers, or anyone else around to enjoy these parks. One of our group members has reported
people having been harassed or jumped in the park at any time day or night. Abel told us of the
time a homeless couple threatened his sister who was home alone.
The homelessness has become so bad Abel and his family have started finding homeless
men sleeping on their porch, and in their garage at night. Abel said they had seen homeless
people doing drugs, smoking cigarettes, and drinking alcohol in their yard. The homeless then
leave the remnants of cigarettes, empty bottles, and cans, and used drug paraphernalia around
their neighborhood. You may be wondering why doesnt his family put up a fence or call the
police? Abel has said by the time the police have arrived the trespassers have already left, only to
return after the police leave. The police have suggested putting a no trespassing sign up to warn
the trespassers. As for erecting a fence around the house, Abels home sits on a rather large plot
of land which is too big to install a fence up feasibly. These people need somewhere to go and
something to do, and we hope to address that in a moment.
On a single night in January 2015, 564,708 people were experiencing homelessness in
America. The homeless rate nationwide dropped by 6% from 2014 to 2015. In 18 states, the
number of homeless in unsheltered locations, like cars, and abandoned buildings has dropped

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significantly (The State of Homelessness in America 2016 par.1). There are many things that
lead to becoming homeless. A few of the main reasons are poverty, drug and alcohol addiction,
illness, and family problems. (Cox).
Poverty is the biggest problem. One quarter of homeless have jobs, but dont make
enough to pay for rent or food. This is due to credit card debt, unemployment, and bills. The
little money that they do make, is barely enough to survive on, much less have a roof over their
heads. Over time this adds up to where they are always in debt and never can get out of debt
(Cox).
The second leading cause of homelessness is drug and alcohol abuse. When people think
of the homeless, they mostly think all or most struggle with substance abuse, but only 38% of
homeless, abuse alcohol, and only 26% abuse other drugs according to Alcoholrehab.com
(Homelessness and Substance Abuse par.10). Drug and alcohol abuse can lead to poverty,
unemployment, arrest, illness, or death (Cox).
Another big problem is illness, both mental and physical. This has the biggest impact on
veterans who suffer from injury or mental illness. Proper treatment and medicine is very
expensive and hard to find. When treatment is available, some homeless refuse it, due to past
bad experiences, preconceived notions, or simply irrational fears provided by the illness itself.
In both types of illnesss employment is hard to find and keep (Cox).
The last main reason is family problems, such as domestic violence, tragedy, and
children. Children make up the biggest portion. Some are runaways, others are homeless like
their parents. They do not attend school and are unable to get high paying jobs due to that.
Tragedy and death is another problem. This could cause depression and loss of job, or lack of

Homeless 5
income from a parent or spouse. Lastly, victims of domestic violence end up homeless because
they are feeling like they have nowhere to go and lack of income (Cox).
Homelessness is a chronic problem that has affected Salt Lake City for many years. There
are several attempts that have been made to address this problem. Despite these attempts, the
problem persists in the city and the entire State of Utah.
Emergency shelters have been used as a solution to the homeless issue in Salt Lake City.
The main emergency shelter is run by The Road Home, which is a non-profit organization
contracting with the Salt Lake County. Located in the heart of Salt Lake City, The Road Home is
used to provide shelter for single men and women, and families with special needs (Hartvigsen et
al., 5). In addition to The Road Home, there are other emergency shelter providers such as
Rescue Mission and Rescue Haven. The Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA) offers
shelter to women who have suffered domestic violence and their children (Chambliss & Tennert,
6). Emergency shelters are usually offered to those people who require shelter for a short period,
however, most of the beneficiaries end up staying in these shelters for longer periods of time.
Salt Lake City has also attempted to solve the problem using the transitional housing
approach. This type of housing is mainly used by individuals or families that have moved from
their homes and require housing for long periods. Typically such families or individuals want to
stay for periods longer than what is allowed in emergency shelters. This type of housing is
mainly targeted for homeless youth and women victims of domestic violence and the children. In
addition, this type of housing is also offered to individuals who have been released from
institutions such as prisons. One provider of these services is the Volunteers of America, which
runs a home for young men (Hartvigsen et al., 6). In addition, the YWCA also operates such a
home for female victims of domestic violence and their children (Kirby).

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Homelessness among veterans is also a problem in Salt Lake City. To address this
challenge, the veteran housing approach has been used. This type of housing targets homeless
veterans with disabilities such as mental illness, drug abuse or physical ailments. These services
are only offered to veterans who are candidates for the HUD-VASH voucher which provides
permanent housing for eligible veterans (Hartvigsen et al. 16). The beneficiaries of this program
have to continue with their normal lives independently, however, they are offered supportive
services whenever required. The Housing Authority of Salt Lake County has given a very high
number of the VASH vouchers to the veterans.
Public housing has also been used as a strategy to deal with homelessness in Salt Lake
City. This type of housing mainly consists of rental units that are owned by housing authorities.
These units are rented to individuals and families at affordable rates, the rate is based on the
household income of the individuals. The beneficiaries may have access to supportive services,
although this depends on the complex they live in. The Salt Lake City Housing Authority has
more than five hundred units of public housing. Some of these units are specifically designed for
individuals aged 55 and above, while others are designated for families (Chambless & Tennert,
7).
Permanent supportive housing has also been adopted as a long term solution to the
homelessness in Salt Lake City. This type of housing is mainly aimed at helping individuals in
need of intensive care management in order to live independently. When an individual or family
is offered this type of housing, they are not given a time limit within which they should move
out. For example, chronic homeless persons with mental illnesses, AIDS and developmental
disabilities are considered for these types of houses. In Salt Lake City, permanent housing is
offered mainly through public housing programs (Kirby).

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The Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers have also been used to offer housing to lowincome families. Through the Housing Choice Voucher Program, very low-income families are
given a chance to look or an apartment in the county and rent at rates compatible with their
household incomes (Chambless & Tennert, 8). Landlords are therefore allowed to offer
affordable housing to voucher holders if they qualify for that particular unit. This program is
usually loved by consumers because it offers them the flexibility to choose the location and the
price of the apartment they desire to rent. With this program, there are a very high number of
applicants waiting to be offered the vouchers to get the housing.
In recent years, Salt Lake City authorities have also been putting short-term actions in
place to help further address the problem. The police have been deployed throughout the city to
help tackle the drug trafficking challenge, a problem linked to homelessness (Salt Lake City
Police Department, 20). The number of social workers has been increasing to enhance
community outreach and support. Finally, police are used to provide additional security at
shelters for the homeless.
The research has revealed that in Salt Lake City there have been some strategies adopted
with the aim of addressing the homelessness problem in the city. However, there are several
limitations with the programs identified above. As a result, this is still a major problem in the city
and the larger Utah state. First, there is a general lack of affordable housing across the different
income levels in the city. The few low-income housing units available do not meet the demand,
and this leaves many people without homes. Second, the current programs do not pay much
attention to the family sizes of the homeless individuals. Homeless persons with larger family
sizes tend to suffer significantly because the housing units are small. In the end, the units

Homeless 8
available do not necessarily address the challenge adequately. Homelessness in Salt Lake City is
one problem that requires different approaches as the current strategies prove to be ineffective.
We have only scratched the surface of the programs available to the homeless in Salt
Lake City. With so many programs aimed at helping the homeless, and so many causes of
homelessness in Salt Lake City, it would be near impossible to solve such a complex issue with
one idea. The solution to homelessness has to be complex and nuanced to address all the various
causes and individual states of being.
With that being said, we have identified an area where the current services and programs
seem to fall short: the treatment and care of persons with mental illnesses and persons suffering
from addiction. We have come up with a two-pronged approach for the long term and the short.
Our long-term goal is to create a series working shelters. The first working shelter will
take quite a bit of time to get moving and off the ground, but hopefully with success more will
come faster. In the meantime, we will create an information distribution model to help guide the
homeless individuals until our working shelters are open.
A working shelter to put it simply is a converted warehouse that the residents work on
improving. What would happen is the city or county would offer tax incentives to the institution
or business holding the property, in exchange for the use of the building. The people wishing to
stay at the facility would be required to clean up and renovate the building to make it safe and
habitable. The residents would then be allowed to stay as long as they needed to get back on their
feet. With a few stipulations, such as continued contributions to the facility in the form of
service, the continuation of treatment programs, and overall good behavior.

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The first issue is finding a location, thats the easy part. The abandoned and vacant
buildings litter the valley. The difficult part is getting the building owners to allow us the use of
the building. We will first petition the city and county to approve tax breaks for the landlords to
drop the rent rate or ideally give us the use of the building free of rent. Then we will raise funds
through donations from private citizens, corporate sponsorships, and government grants to cover
the rest of the cost of the building. The construction supplies would ideally come from donations
or bought using the money from the above-stated sources. The facility would need volunteers to
help teach the residents the skills needed for the labor as well as donated materials. We would
partner with local churches, youth groups, humanitarian organizations, and businesses to provide
the volunteer instructors. The facility would start out rudimentary following the ESG Minimum
Habitability Standards for Emergency Shelters and Permanent Housing to the letter, but would
eventually transform itself into a comfortable living space complete with a private living area
available for those individuals that earn such a luxury.
The working shelter will take considerable time to get moving. To fill the gap until the
time that the shelter is operating, we have developed an information dispersal to do two things.
First is to inform the public of our new working shelter plan, and second, to inform the homeless
of all the services available to them right now. Essentially we would have a two-sided flyer. On
one side there would be information on the working shelter, the shelters needs, how to donate,
and how to volunteer. The second side would list several services: a brief description of the
service, the location, operating hours, and the telephone number of the participating services.
To make the flyers happen all that we would need is $600.00 for ten thousand flyers. The
money would come out of the donation page on gofundme.com, a fundraising site. To distribute
these flyers we will take them around to local services such as the Fourth Street Clinic, The Road

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Home, the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake, and the Homeless Outreach Program to give out as they
see fit.
Homelessness is a major problem at Salt Lake City affecting many people and their
everyday activities. It is observable upon a stroll around town, with the many homeless persons
bothering shoppers, reducing customer flow into businesses and contributing to filth around the
town with their carefree tendencies. Statistics show that homelessness is a wider problem in the
entire US, while various personal experiences among residents suggest that there could be no
change in sight soon. This is not to say that there have been no efforts to stop the problem with
numerous endeavors such as temporary shelters, public housing, dealing with drug traffickers
and transitional housing. Nevertheless, these measures have proved inadequate, with the
interventions inconsiderate to the family sizes of the homeless as well as the available housing
still unaffordable. Our suggestion for the construction of a working shelter to house the homeless
in the long term while coming up with information distribution channels to serve in the short
term appears practical. Information will be moved to inform the homeless of present
opportunities and the ongoing plan of a working shelter. This is going to help to mitigate the
problem of homelessness at Salt Lake City both in the long term and in the immediate present.

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Works Cited
Cox, Jason. "Top 10 Causes of Homelessness." Poverty Living. N.p., 02 Sept.
2013. http://www.povertyliving.com/2013/09/top-10-causes-of-homelessness-2/ Web. 20
Nov. 2016.
Chambless, Cathy and Tennert, Juliette, Salt Lake County Homeless Services: Challenges
and Options. Policy Brief, February 2016: pp. 1-13
Hartvigsen, Alex, et al. Comprehensive Report on Homelessness: State of Utah. Utah
Housing and Community Development Division, 2015.
https://jobs.utah.gov/housing/scso/documents/homelessness2015.pdf Web. 1 Dec. 2016
"Homelessness and Substance Abuse." Alcohol Rehab. N.p., n.d.http://alcoholrehab.com/drugaddiction/homelessness-and-substance-abuse/ Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
Kirby, Ed. In person interview. 12 Nov. 2016, 19 Nov. 2016, 26 Nov. 2016.
Salt Lake City Police Department, Salt Lake City Police Department Homeless Outreach
Serviceteam (HOST) Program Overview. Washington, DC: Office of Community
Oriented Policing Services, 2016.
Salt Lake City launches war on homeless problems Good4Utah. Nexstar Broadcasting Inc. 28
July 2015. Web. http://www.good4utah.com/news/local-wasatch-front-/salt-lake-citylaunches-war-on-homeless-problems 6 Dec. 2016.

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"The State of Homelessness in America 2016." National Alliance to End Homelessness. N.p., 06
Apr. 2016. http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/SOH2016 Web. 20 Nov. 2016.