Pledge to help reduce child homelessness in Salt Lake County
Child homelessness is a problem too big to ignore but small enough to be solved if all sectors of our community come together to address it.
The problem
The first year of life is the time a person living in the United States is most likely to be homeless. The age group with the second highest incidence of homelessness is children between the age of one and five years old. A growing body of research shows that homelessness is a traumatic experience that negatively impacts children's health and development. The negative impacts of homelessness on childhood wellbeing increase as the length of homelessness increases. Our community has the ability to reduce the number of nights children spend in homeless shelters.
Where we are now
1,534 children under the age of 18 lived at a homeless shelter in Salt Lake County in 2018. Several hundred more spent at least one night at a shelter for victims of domestic violence. 51 percent of families with children that enter a homeless shelter leave within a month. 32 percent leave between one month and three months. 13 percent stay for between 3 months and 6 months. Only one percent of homeless families stay in a shelter for nine months or more.
Solutions
1. Increase the number of apartments low income families can afford by producing new units and preserving existing affordable housing that is safe and appropriate for families with children.
2. Increase the number of permanent supportive housing units available for the most vulnerable homeless families.
3. Increase the income of families who experience homelessness by connecting parents to adult education and job training and providing the support parents need to benefit from these opportunities.
4. Increase access to childcare so that parents have a safe, caring place for their children to learn and grow while they are earning money or working to increase their income capacity.
I/We pledge to help educate others in our community about child homelessness and to support solutions that will help reduce child homelessness.
Child homelessness is a problem too big to ignore but small enough to be solved if all sectors of our community come together to address it.
The problem
The first year of life is the time a person living in the United States is most likely to be homeless. The age group with the second highest incidence of homelessness is children between the age of one and five years old. A growing body of research shows that homelessness is a traumatic experience that negatively impacts children's health and development. The negative impacts of homelessness on childhood wellbeing increase as the length of homelessness increases. Our community has the ability to reduce the number of nights children spend in homeless shelters.
Where we are now
1,534 children under the age of 18 lived at a homeless shelter in Salt Lake County in 2018. Several hundred more spent at least one night at a shelter for victims of domestic violence. 51 percent of families with children that enter a homeless shelter leave within a month. 32 percent leave between one month and three months. 13 percent stay for between 3 months and 6 months. Only one percent of homeless families stay in a shelter for nine months or more.
Solutions
1. Increase the number of apartments low income families can afford by producing new units and preserving existing affordable housing that is safe and appropriate for families with children.
2. Increase the number of permanent supportive housing units available for the most vulnerable homeless families.
3. Increase the income of families who experience homelessness by connecting parents to adult education and job training and providing the support parents need to benefit from these opportunities.
4. Increase access to childcare so that parents have a safe, caring place for their children to learn and grow while they are earning money or working to increase their income capacity.
I/We pledge to help educate others in our community about child homelessness and to support solutions that will help reduce child homelessness.
| |  The Coalition of Religious Communities is project of Crossroads Urban Center that brings people together from a variety of faith traditions to promote solutions to hunger, homelessness and poverty in Utah. We currently have groups that meet in Salt Lake County and Weber County. Our top top policy focus at this time is reducing the number of nights that children spend at homeless shelters in Utah. |
