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SALT LAKE CITY — Christmas arrived a few days early for Salt Lake County homeless health services.
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams accepted a gift of $500,000 from Intermountain Healthcare on Wednesday. He and Mikelle Moore, Intermountain Healthcare vice president, announced the grant at the Fourth Street Clinic, one of the homeless health care providers that will benefit from the funding.
McAdams said the grant signifies important nonprofit support at a time when all participants in the county's homelessness initiative have united around a single, collective approach to solving homelessness in the Salt Lake Valley, with 14 specific goals to address and target the root causes of homelessness.
"Intermountain Healthcare's donation is the best Christmas gift we could hope for, as we bring private and nonprofit partners together in the cause of minimizing homelessness," McAdams said. "One of our 14 agreed-to outcomes in the homelessness initiative is to meet the basic needs of those in crisis, and nothing is more basic than helping the homeless receive health care."
The $500,000 is intended to increase access and better "connect" people struggling with homelessness to health care services, Moore said. The donation will go to the Community Foundation of Utah to support the work of providers who serve the medical needs of the homeless, such as the Fourth Street Clinic.
"We have long been committed in our 40-year history to meeting the necessary medical needs of the people in our community, regardless of ability to pay," Moore said. "We recognize very clearly that people can't come to work on a solid, stable social foundation if they don't have their health."
At the time of Wednesday's announcement, the Fourth Street Clinic's waiting room was overflowing with patients.
Ryan Sajec, 37, had come from the Salt Lake Rescue Mission for a regular monthly — sometimes weekly — visit to keep his health in check. Sajec said he has Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the body's connective tissue, for which he has had multiple surgeries, including one to replace his aorta.
"This place has to be here. It's the only place I know to turn to," he said, adding that he otherwise wouldn't be able to afford his post-surgery medications or follow up care. "Prescriptions are very, very top shelf for me. I can't afford them. … And they've helped me get insurance. I'm starting disability because I've been slowly learning that I can't work."
But the disease hasn't been Sajec's only struggle. He said years ago he lost his home and his family because of an addiction to heroin. He kicked the addiction last December, he said, thanks to treatment from the Fourth Street Clinic.
"This place is the reason I got off heroin," Sajec said. "I don't have any relapses. I'm doing really well. … Now I'm slowly inching my way back to my family."
Thanks to his treatment, Sajec said he believes he will eventually be able to get back on his feet. He's been living at the shelter for the past year. When he heard of the $500,000 grant, he was thrilled. He said he knows the facility could use more resources because he usually waits for four hours for treatment.
"I want to give a big Christmas hug to this whole facility and everybody in it and thank them for everything they do," Sajec said. "God bless their hearts."
While it hasn't yet been decided exactly how the funds will be used, Fourth Street Clinic CEO Laura Michalski said she hopes to increase overall access, whether that's through hiring more staff or extending hours.
"One of the things we've already looked at is expansion of hours to evenings and Saturdays, because people don't get sick 9 to 5," she said.
Michalski said she sees the grant as a new opportunity.
"We're really excited to have this opportunity to think strategically and have innovative ideas about providing health care to the uninsured and homeless individuals in the community," she said.
Moore said the $500,000 is a one-time contribution, and she's uncertain whether it will become ongoing funding.
"But (Intermountain Healthcare) will still be part of the continuum," she said, noting that it already donates ongoing funding to the Fourth Street Clinic. "So it might suggest that we fund differently in the future, for some of the ongoing funding we've done. We'll learn what will make the biggest impact for solving these problems and learn from this experience ourselves."
McAdams said the grant comes at a crucial time, after all participants in the county's homelessness coalition united last month around a $27 million request to the Utah Legislature for state funding to help with construction of several new, smaller emergency shelters.
"With funding like this, we can really rally around our common agenda to provide the much-needed health care to those experiencing homelessness," Michalski said. "We are committed to our mission, as well as to working with our partners to work toward meeting the 14 outcomes. This is an exciting first step."
