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The fight to fund people's needs can be a tough one on Utah's Capitol Hill. For more than 30 years, a group called Utah Issues was an advocate on housing, health care and hunger. But the group folded in January, so who's fighting those fights now?
Utah Issues was a group that fought for people who traditionally fall through the cracks. That kind of work is being done by others now, but there is a sense of loss for the group that helped a lot of people over the years.
With the power to make or break budgets, the Utah Legislature can be either friend or foe to those lobbying for money. It can be especially tough on people working in the case of people who are trying to avoid being homeless.
Some in the Legislature wonder if government programs help or hurt in the long run.
More than 30 years ago, Utah Issues started to take action at the Capitol on behalf of Utahns who are "functionally poor," who work but still can't afford all the basics. The group became a voice that carried from the least powerful to the most powerful among us.
"They've been a good resource for us to understand the issue of the low-income and some of the things that they struggle with," said House Speaker Greg Curtis.
Over the years, Utah Issues did a lot of work. For example, the group offered an annual poverty conference. But earlier this year, Utah Issues closed its doors.
Many of the people who worked there moved on and are doing the same kind of work somewhere else. Heather Tritten worked on housing issues. "We had so many passionate people over there who melded into, really, a family. I mean, we fought all the time because we cared so much about the issues we were working on," Tritten said.
But the good news, according to past executive director Bill Crim, is that other groups, like his current employer, the United Way, are picking up where Utah Issues left off.
"For the most part, the issues Utah Issues worked on, the problems it tried to solve, the advocacy and research that got done, that carries on in various places," Crim said.
Every year, the Utah Legislature allocates millions of dollars to programs that help Utah's poor.
E-mail: rpiatt@ksl.com
