Growing needs of the homeless require change

Intermountain Catholic

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In light of current economic challenges, the Catholic Community (CCS) Board of Directors voted to gradually decrease the day shelter services provided at the Bishop Weigand Center and close it by June 30. CCS will transition into providing chronically homeless individuals and families with rent, utility, and food assistance, as well as other services. These individuals are continuing to move into permanent supportive housing.IC photo by Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — "During the past year, Catholic Community Services (CCS) Emergency Assistance case managers have reported a 40 percent increase in requests for rental and utility assistance, and food assistance," said Kathryn Brussard, CCS director of development and marketing.

Brussard said CCS is responding to the changing needs of the homeless community by expanding its Emergency Services programs at the Bishop Weigand Center, adjacent to the CCS Saint Vincent de Paul dining hall on 200 South and 400 North in Salt Lake City. In order to make this transition possible, the CCS Board of Directors voted the week of March 9, to gradually close the day shelter currently provided at the center.

"The transition will be in place by June 30, 2009," and will have no impact on the staff. No body is going to be laid off," said Brussard. "CCS will continue to provide more than 20,000 hot meals each month at St. Vincent de Paul, as well as clothing and referrals for homeless individuals."

The Weigand Center offers a broad range of services to the homeless including showers, laundry facilities, haircuts, and a library. Other agencies offering jobs, medical and mental health, and legal services are located at the Center.

"The day shelter services have been running at a financial deficit for some time," said Brussard. "In light of current economic challenges, this situation is not expected to improve. The recipients of day shelter services are chronically homeless individuals who continue to move into permanent supported housing due to the success of Utah’s 10-year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. The state of Utah has formed a Central Intake Committee that is meeting to discuss how current homeless programs may be able to absorb any clients who may be displaced as a result of this transition.

"Our Executive Director Brad Drake predicts that efficiencies gained by the reorganization will allow CCS to serve 200 more households facing homelessness each year," said Brussard.

"What this change means for CCS is that it will allow us to increase the number of individuals we will be serving, because we will provide more emergency services," said Drake. "We will provide food assistance, children’s shoe vouchers, personal care needs, baby needs, crisis utility assistance, and rental assistance. All of these things will enable us to serve more of our clients who are in need in such desperate and drastic times.

"This transition will allow us to provide more case management to the homeless, which will allow us the opportunity to help them actually work toward employment and give them goals to becoming more self sufficient," said Drake. "This has not been the case at the Weigand Center because we did not have the capability to fund case managers. The revenue did not come in for day shelter types of needs. With the state’s 10-year Plan to End Homelessness, a lot of the chronic homeless and the homeless population are moving more toward permanent housing. That is simply why we lost the funding, and then we did not receive as much support as we had hoped for from the community. We have eliminated these cost deficits that will now allow us to maximize our efforts of really enhancing our ability to serve and help the homeless become more self reliant."

"CCS was more than happy to operate the day shelter services for individuals struggling with homelessness," said Jose Lazaro, director of Emergency Services. "But we were not receiving adequate funding in the form of government grants, private grants, and donations.

"If we were to continue the Weigand Center, we would possibly have to lay off employees, or close other programs that are able to sustain themselves and are receiving adequate funding," said Lazaro. "We would have to shift those funds to the Weigand Center, and we did not feel that made sense."

Lazaro said also the state’s 10-year Plan to End Homelessness, is doing very well. Two years ago they opened the Sunrise Metro, and 100 housing units for chronically homeless individuals.

"This year they will open Palmer Court, another supported housing unit for families and individuals who are chronically homeless," said Lazaro. "A lot of the chronically homeless, who use most of the resources, are moving into supported housing. So the need for the day shelter was declining as well.

"The board felt this was a perfect opportunity to expand some of our other services," said Lazaro. "The prevention of homelessness is one of our goals through Emergency Assistance. Right now we are seeing a large amount of individuals asking for rental assistance, food assistance, and utility assistance.

"What we are trying to do is shift our focus to keep people in their homes," said Lazaro. "We are going to try to help them in any way we can to fill voids so they can maintain their homes.

"CCS helps people maintain their self-sufficiency," said Lazaro. "What was happening at the Weigand Center was not allowing that to happen. We want to help people help themselves, that is our core mission. All of our programs are currently doing that except the Weigand Center because of a lack of funding.

"Right now on a daily basis, excluding the Weigand Center, we are serving about 600 individuals daily," said Lazaro. "We are still going to continue to meet the needs of those struggling with homelessness. We are going to continue our services in the Saint Vincent de Paul dining hall, which serves 700 to 1,000 meals daily. We will continue to offer referrals, partner with the Department of Work Force Services, who offers social workers."

"We will continue our ongoing partnership with Volunteers of America (VOA) and the Road Home," said Brussard.

"VOA actually has an outreach van that goes out and assists individuals," said Lazaro. "We have always partnered with the Road Home, who operates the overnight shelter out of the Saint Vincent de Paul Center. We refer clients to them for shelter, as they do to our organization for food."

"Homelessness is a community issue, not just CCS’s problem," said Lazaro. "If we do not have the support for homelessness, then we are limited in what we can do."