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SALT LAKE CITY — Todd McKinsey absentmindedly twisted the end of an unlit cigarette he had pulled from behind his ear as he talked. His gray hair was military-style short and matched the stubble starting to grow across his face. In his other hand, he held a set of keys tightly.
McKinsey, 58, served in the United States Coast Guard for many years. He also has slept on the streets of Salt Lake City.
Seven years ago Veterans Affairs in Salt Lake City helped McKinsey find housing and continue to offer a variety of services to prevent him from landing back on the streets.
Those services were all present on Wednesday during the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System's homeless veteran "stand down" event. The event was held as an attempt to connect with veterans before winter arrives.
"Utah, meaning the federal government programs here, takes the best care of veterans. There's plenty of resources here for anyone that needs anything. Utah has always been a charitable state," McKinsey said.
The goal of a stand-down is to end veteran homelessness. To address the issue, the homeless program offered a variety of services Wednesday at Sunnyside Park Pavilion including a medical team, the Veteran Justice Outreach program and the Housing Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supporting Housing program.
"Stand down is a title used by the federal government of, like, stop everything you're doing and focus on one specific area. And so we, in our program, and many other programs that deal with veterans are stopping what we're doing and putting housing and getting veterans connected to services at the forefront," said Meisha Jensen, outreach coordinator for VA Salt Lake City.
The stand-down event is held once a year in Salt Lake City and in rural communities. Due to COVID-19, the size of the event was smaller. The program in the past was able to in conjunction with Project Homeless Connect for larger-scale events.
Tuesday's event was smaller but had several community partners present such as the Veterans Benefits Administration, Vet Centers, Department of Workforce Services, the Road Home, Social Security Administration and the Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs.
But the downsizing of the event didn't undermine its success, Jensen said.
"We want to try to make sure that veterans know we're here, we care, we want to help you. Just by hosting the event alone, veterans know that we're here and we're standing ready and just by the sheer amount of donations we've been able to give out and connections and referrals to housing, I feel like it's been a success. Even if only one veteran came, it would be a success," she said.
Jensen estimated that in several hours over 50 veterans had accessed services at the event. Veterans could be seen leaving with sleeping bags, coats, shoes, pants, backpacks full of supplies, sleeping pads, tents, gloves, hats and food. The event is generally held in October to prepare veterans for the approaching winter, she added.
"We want to make sure that our veterans going into winter have what they need," Jensen said. "We don't want any veterans experiencing unsheltered homelessness but if they do we want them to be prepared for it."
The number of those veterans heading into winter with the risk of being unsheltered is rising, according to Jensen.
She pointed to Utah's housing market pricing out veterans. The influx of population and the booming market has led to affordable apartments being sold or landlords raising rent, pushing out veterans.
"When you're a veteran paying $600 on a Social Security income and your rent gets raised to $1,200, you can't afford it. We just don't have enough affordable housing," Jensen explained.
With a number of veterans losing housing and winter approaching quickly, Jensen said she worries. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall initiated a petition to ban any new permanent homeless shelters in Salt Lake City for at least the next six months.
The petition comes after a series of events, including a report by Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness last month that called for at least 300 more emergency shelter beds for unsheltered individuals as winter approaches.
"I'm always concerned about overflow shelter for the winter. The VA doesn't have its own emergency shelter so we do rely heavily on the emergency shelter system that we have in Salt Lake County," Jensen said. "We're watching that, we're working with our community partners, and we are hoping that we can have an emergency shelter system for this overflow system for the winter."
The program is attempting to usher as many veterans as possible into stable housing before winter approaches but has run into additional roadblocks.
A veteran-specific program, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, helps people like McKinsey access housing through Housing Connect and case management from the VA. The waitlist for housing vouchers outside of HUD-VASH can be years, said Brittany Chatterton with Housing Connect. Veterans who access vouchers through the program can be housed much quicker.
But Housing Connect isn't currently issuing those vouchers due to a lack of funding, Chatterton said.
But despite all the increasing issues the state faces while managing homelessness, McKinsey has hope for it.
"Creating solutions is the opportunity that we have right now in Utah. Especially as lower-income people move here to the state and continue to move here, they are looking to be healed. I think we will be able to rise to the challenge and it's a lot of work," McKinsey said earnestly.
"We just have to make sure that we at least bucket out as much water that is coming in to sink the ship, and there's a lot of water that's coming in. So we have to keep working at it, it's essential."
