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A staggering number of families are filling Utah's homeless shelters. In fact, in one of Salt Lake's shelters, moms, dads and children are lining the hallways, the lobby, any place they can find to sleep so they don't have to sleep on the streets.
It's the faces of homeless children that the head of one Salt Lake shelter sees everyday.
"She had her head down. She wouldn't look up, just wouldn't make eye contact with anyone around her," said Matt Minkevitch, executive director of the Road Home. "Her humiliation … and at the same time, she just wasn't going to miss that school bus, and I just felt for her. I felt for her."
Visibly upset, Minkevitch and his staff aren't quite at the level of panic, but they are nearing a crisis. "This is not even the busy time of year. This is the slow season," he said.
There are a record number of families staying at the Road Home. Last year, there were 56. In the last three months, there have been double that.
One hundred and twenty-two families, like Treasa Hansen and her four children, are homeless and need help.
"It's better than being on the streets," Hansen said.
Alexzandria Parker, here with her son, agrees. "I'd rather have someplace for my son to sleep than to have him sleeping outside," she said.
Families come here because they're forced out of their homes. Job loss is a major reason, but there are others.
"We know that a tight economy and a very tight rental market are two of the chief contributing factors to this phenomenon," Minkevitch said.
It's a phenomenon that's working against many families who barely get by. And when life falls apart, they come here, trying desperately to keep their family together.
"Moms and dads are struggling to keep a semblance of a normal life together in the midst of very abnormal circumstances," Minkevitch said.
Minkevitch says the Road Home hasn't turned a single family away from the shelter. Next week, the Road Home is planning to serve families at the Midvale shelter, which could open up some much needed space.
For information on how you can help the families at the Road Home shelter, click the related link to the right of the story.
E-mail: lprichard@ksl.com
