Hunger and Poverty News

COVID Relief Bill will dramatically reduce homelessness in Utah: Let your Congressperson know

2/22/2021

Congress is debating a bill to help the country recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill also provides unprecedented funding to address the housing instability and homelessness crises that were worsened by the pandemic. Specific funding to address homelessness and housing instability include:

$19 billion in emergency rental assistance to help people avoid eviction during the next eighteen months,
$5 billion for Housing Choice Vouchers for people recovering from homelessness and for renters at greatest risk of homelessness, and,
$5 billion for homelessness assistance through the HOME Investment Partnerships Program.

This funding is the biggest federal investment in homelessness prevention in several decades. If you support these ideas let you representative know.

Utah's Representatives in Congress
Representative Blake Moore
Representative Chris Stewart
Representative John Curtis
Representative Burgess Owens

Learn more:

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has produced a detailed analysis of the proposed COVID-19 relief bill.
Community Change has created a useful analysis of how changes in federal housing policy could prevent homelessness.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition has produced analysis about how many low income Utah families are paying more for rent than they can sustainably afford.

Learn how Medicaid funding and improvements to federal housing credits can reduce child homelessness at the Coalition of Religious Communities preview of the 2021 session of the Utah Legislature

12/30/2020

On Wednesday, January 13, 2021, at 10:30 AM the Coalition of Religious Communities will broadcast its preview of the 2021 session of the Utah Legislature on Facebook Live on the Crossroads Urban Center Facebook Page. Topics to be discussed will include:

Why Utah needs to do more to reduce family homelessness.
How recent improvements to federal housing credits increase the value of state investments in affordable housing.
How Medicaid can be used to fund outreach and case management for families that have experienced homelessness,

We are so pleased that the following people have agreed to speak:

Sarah Brundage Senior Director of Public Policy at Enterprise Community Partners
Senator Luz Escamilla, Utah State Senate, District 1
Rev. Joan Bell-Haynes, Executive Regional Minister, Central Rocky Mountain Region, Christian Church (Disciples Of Christ), USA and Canada
Senator Derek Kitchen, Utah State Senate, District 2
Rev. Karen Oliveto, Bishop, Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church
Jennifer Sullivan, Director of Housing and Health Integration at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

If you have questions about this event please reach out to Bill Tibbitts at bill@crossroadsurbancenter.org

Register to be part of this conversation on Zoom

Solutions to child homelessness in Utah to be discussed at legislative preview sponsored by the Coalition of Religious Communities on January 13, 2021

12/16/2020

Everyone is invited to learn about ideas for reducing child homelessness at the Coalition of Religious Communities preview of the 2021 session of the Utah Legislature. This event will take place on January 13, 2021 at 10:30 AM on Facebook Live. Speakers will include faith leaders, national policy experts and state legislators.

We are pleased to announce that our introductory speaker will be Bishop Karen P. Oliveto of the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church. The full agenda has not been finalized but we will be building on the recommendations from the report on child homelessness that we released in September.

The legislative preview will be broadcast on Facebook Live:
www.facebook.com/crossroadsurbancenter

Below are pictures from the Ending Child Homeless Day at the Capitol we organize at the beginning of 2020. We will not be able to gather in person in January of 2021 but we will continue to do what we can to draw attention to solutions to child homelessness.

Volunteers make the world a kinder place

12/2/2020

On Wednesday, November 25, 2020, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, we were able to provide 3,438 families with turkeys and side dishes for Thanksgiving. We are so grateful for all the supporters who made this Thanksgiving a positive day for everyone in our state. We are particularly grateful for our amazing partners at Harmons Grocers and the Utah Food Bank.

Here are a few pictures we took at the drive through giveaway. If you have additional pictures you would like to share send them to bill@crossroadsurbancenter.org

Meet our incoming food pantry director, Matt Minkevitch

11/10/2020

We are pleased to announce that the new director of our historic emergency food pantry in downtown Salt Lake City will be Matt Minkevitch. Matt is replacing long time pantry director Rachel Fishbein, who is retiring at the end of this year.

"We are excited to have Matt on our team at Crossroads," said Executive Director Glenn Bailey. “His decades of experience in emergency food and services for people experiencing homelessness will help us to not only continue to meet the needs of people coming to us for help, but to build new and effective programs for the future."

We asked Matt for a comment for this post and here is what he had to say, "I am elated to be welcomed into this remarkable team. For decades Crossroads has served as a beacon of service and advocacy for our community. I look forward to doing my part to serve each person who turns to us in their moment of need."

Welcome to the team, Matt!

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EMERGENCY FOOD PANTRY
347 South 400 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
801-364-7765
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CROSSROADS THRIFT STORE
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