SandBoxUtah: CBS "Utah: Chronic homelessness down 9 percent"

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"SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Chronic homelessness continued to drop in Utah despite an overall increase in the homeless population, state officials said Monday.

Overall, there are an estimated 540 chronically homeless people living on Utah's streets, according to an annual population count. That is 9 percent fewer than in 2011 and the seventh year in a row that the number has dropped, said Gordon Walker, director of the Division of Housing and Community Development.

The homeless population did increase by 13 percent, from an estimated 14,351 to 16,642, which Walker said is expected during a weak economy.

But because of the continued reduction in chronic homelessness — when a person has been homeless for more than a year, or multiple times within the past five years — there is more room at housing shelters for those who are temporarily homeless.

Homeless outreach groups have conducted the annual census since 2004. Walker said they do the count on the same night in January, which provides consistency, and have a statistical model that accounts for the homeless they miss...."  (Read more?  Click title)

SandBoxUtah: Wausau Daily Herald "Families evicted from Utah storage facility"

"Ed Snoddy, a homeless outreach worker with Volunteers of America since 1995, said he has not personally witnessed people living in storage units. He has worked with many people who live in homeless camps and abandoned buildings.

"This is the first I've heard about it. Personally, on our outreach trips we've never seen it," he told the Deseret News.

Tony Milner is executive director of Family Promise of Salt Lake, a nonprofit agency that provides services and housing to homeless families through a network of churches. More often, people seeking assistance live in their cars, he said.

Rents for storage units are significantly lower than apartments or rooms. A 10-by-10 foot unit rents for about $80 a month.

Cory Milligan, manager of 13th South Self Storage, said finding an apartment or room "is tough once you have bad credit. The economy keeps getting worse. It's probably going to happen more."...."
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SandBoxUtah: Salt Lake Tribune "Utah temporary homeless numbers reach all-time high"

Brooke Adams:
"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...."

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