KCPW Article

(KCPW News) Chronic homelessness is down 19 percent in Utah and 32 percent in Salt Lake County from three years ago, according to the 2009 Comprehensive Report on Homelessness released today. Gordon Walker, director of the Utah Division of Housing and Community Development, says the state has made impressive progress toward its goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2014.

“The reason that we’ve been able to do this is that the state has adopted a model of housing first, where we house individuals rather than having them change their lives first,” Walker says. “And by doing this, it gives them the opportunity to change their lives.”

This is an expensive endeavor, but Walker says it pays off because it eventually reduces the amount of social services, jail space and hospital beds used by the chronically homeless.

However, overall homelessness has increased for the second year in a row. Walker blames the economic downturn for this. He says families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in Utah, and the state is using federal stimulus funds to help them.

“We have several million dollars that we’re using for housing foreclosure prevention and also for rapid re-housing to try and stop homelessness from happening, but also to take care of them and put people back into housing,” Walker says.

According to the 2009 report, there are 15,525 homeless residents in Utah, making up 0.6 percent of the population. 89 percent of them live along the Wasatch Front.