A 35-bed winter overflow shelter finally opened in Salt Lake City on Monday night, reinforcing the region’s strained homeless service system after weeks of delay.
Service providers had previously secured city approval to use the Weigand Homeless Resource Center as an overnight shelter, but have struggled to staff the facility amid the ongoing labor shortages.
Volunteers of America Utah, the nonprofit running the Weigand overflow space, is now only able to open it with help from state and local agencies, according to a news release.
“Without their help, we would have had to push back the opening another week or two,” Kathy Bray, CEO of Volunteers of America Utah (VOA), said in the release.
Employees for the state, Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City will be volunteering at the Weigand for the first couple of weeks and making required rounds through the center to check for fire hazards.
But the facility at 437 W. 200 South is only one piece of the region’s plan for sheltering people through the winter, and there still are delays in getting the largest overflow center up and running.
That 250-bed shelter in a converted Ramada motel at 1659 W. North Temple likely won’t be open until later this month, officials say. The motel will also serve a narrower population, initially accommodating only individuals who are aging or medically vulnerable, according to the release.
Jean Hill, who co-chairs the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness, said the Ramada will likely have a phased opening as staff is hired and, eventually, there will be some space designated for unsheltered individuals who don’t fit these categories.
However, Hill said the top priority is getting frail and elderly individuals out of the resource centers and into their own rooms in the converted motel.
“These are folks who we have to get out of congregate shelter for their protection,” she said.
The Salt Lake City Council in mid-November approved the plan to use the Ramada as a temporary shelter, but like the VOA, The Road Home has been scrambling to hire employees to run it. Several weeks into December, the nonprofit was still searching for about 30 additional employees to staff the motel.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall last month held a press conference highlighting the staffing shortages and asking people to apply for the open positions.
In the last week, Salt Lake County’s three resource centers have all been operating near capacity, with the men’s shelter in South Salt Lake filling all 300 of its beds at one point, according to the Utah Department of Workforce Services. About 70 more people each night have been sleeping on mats at the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Hall, one of the overflow spaces that opens during the winter.
This is the third winter in a row that homeless system leaders have been scrambling to find overflow space to accommodate people when Salt Lake County’s three permanent adult resource centers fill up. Bed shortages have been dogging the system since the 2019 closure of The Road Home’s downtown emergency shelter, which had space for nearly 400 more people than the resource centers can collectively hold.
This year’s winter overflow plan will add about 500 temporary beds to Salt Lake County’s homeless shelter system, according to a news release.
The overflow beds will be available through mid-April, and people can access them by calling 801-990-9999.
The Road Home is listing open positions on its website.
