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Samantha Hayes ReportingTen years from now Salt Lake County hopes to be reporting a very different story when it comes to the homeless population. The county has 70 percent of the state's homeless, but limited resources to address that problem.
County leaders want to concentrate on the chronic homeless, those on the street for at least a year and those homeless on and off for the last several years. They're calling for volunteers through Americorp, a federally funded organization that rewards individuals for making a difference in their communities.
Kathie Cameron has a teenage son in high school. She works and is a student at the University of Utah. So you may wonder how she has found time to help the homeless.
Kathie Cameron, AmeriCorps Volunteer: "I think I can sympathize with people and understand."
She can sympathize because at one time she was homeless.
Kathie Cameron, AmeriCorps Volunteer: "It was important for me to give back and to be on the other side of it."
Salt Lake County wants volunteers like Cameron to work with individuals who have been homeless for a while because they are the most expensive in terms of services and shelter. The Road Home found, over a five year period, 12 percent of those in the shelter for six months or longer used fifty seven percent of the resources. The annual cost in housing and services per person is about $7,700.
Peter Corroon: "Money is always the challenge, always the need there, and never enough resources to tackle it."
Cameron, and about 20 other Americorps volunteers, will be targeting people at risk for becoming homeless and assisting case workers.
Kathie: "The problem is i think a lot of people who end up homeless don't have the tools and the skills to work their way out of that. So that's what i'd like to do is help people with those skills so they don't end up back."
Salt Lake County received a federal grant to support the AmeriCorps volunteers who are provided with small living allowance, health care, and money for education at the end of their year of service.
