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MIDVALE — Increasing homelessness in the Salt Lake Valley brought an announcement from The Road Home Monday: The Emergency Winter Shelter will now be a permanent facility for the organization.
There are now 71 families or 223 people in the shelter, but there is some good news for all of them. This very cold winter has created an increased need for the family shelter. Residency has gone up, more than 200% increase over the past five years.
Melvin Zambrano and his 4-year-old son Patrick are currently living at the shelter. He lost his business and then their home.
"We've been here for two weeks now and we've already gotten to the point that we're approved for housing, and we're getting ready to transition ourselves," Zambrano said.
On Oct. 1, the Road Home managers opened this facility a month early because of the need. Now the shelter is theirs.
"We are no longer renters here in Midvale," said executive director Matt Minkevitch. "But we are owners and we have the opportunity to improve this facility to a level that reflects our consideration of the people, the community who is turning to us in their time of need."
Minkevitch said the facility will never again have the same problems — huge open rooms with no privacy, crowded conditions, old bathrooms with mostly cold water and a narrow kitchen with old appliances.
The building also needs a new roof and structural fortifications. He said it should take about a year for renovations to be completed.
"It's been absolutely wonderful," Zambrano said. "The people of salt lake have been wonderful to put this together for us."
The Road Home's board of trustees and community leaders approved the $1.2 million purchase, but they will need private donations to fix it.
"We won't have a new name for this facility, but it's going to have a new face," Minkevitch said.
