Salt Lake church ‘bends the law’ by opening doors to help homeless amid bitter cold

By Ashley Fredde

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    SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSL) — The First United Methodist Church’s stained glass windows glowed softly from the outside, a beacon to the growing crowd of unsheltered people gathering outside its doors.

The temperatures on Monday and Tuesday evening hovered around 30 degrees, dropping further in the night. The frigid temperatures pose a risk to people who are experiencing homelessness with the possibility of developing fatal cases of hypothermia or frostbite.

“I’ve had to learn how to protect myself … not just against physical things but the elements as well,” said Michael Zufelt. Zufelt said he’s been experiencing homelessness for approximately nine years.

On Tuesday, medics volunteering at the First United Methodist Church treated 10 individuals with frostbite injuries and the church provided beds for many more who would otherwise be literally left out in the cold.

In the last weeks of December, at least five unsheltered individuals died in the cold on Salt Lake City’s streets. The five deaths were among an estimated 154 deaths of people experiencing homelessness in Utah this past year.

The deaths prompted an outcry from advocates who consider them preventable and prompted an emergency declaration from Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall to increase capacity at area homeless shelters.

South Salt Lake Mayor Cherie Wood and Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini passed similar declarations to increase capacity.

The increase further flexes the capacity beyond the state’s required plan for winter overflow. The increased capacity is estimated to bring around 25 additional beds to each of Salt Lake City’s homeless shelters, with an estimated 95 additional beds overall.

At the time of the declaration, Utah Homelessness Coordinator Wayne Niederhauser said the beds will “take some time to ramp up.”

The Pamela Atkinson Resource Center and Geraldine E. King Resource Center have been able to serve more people since the declaration, according to Sarah Nielson of the Utah Office of Homeless Services. The Youth Resource Center has also increased capacity. The exact number of increased beds was not provided.

Ahead of the deaths, officials felt confident about meeting the need during the winter months. Winter overflow beds were ready and available quicker than in previous years since implementing the dispersed shelter model, according to the State Office of Homelessness.

“I felt pretty confident the state was leading that charge by statute and then that confidence was shattered,” Niederhauser said at the time.

But homeless advocates stated they had reached out to Utah, Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City officials ahead of the dropping temperatures with concerns and received no replies.

“They didn’t have an answer, so they didn’t respond. So that was when we came up with this plan when the state or the city just didn’t have any other answers. And so we decided we were going to bend the laws,” said Wendy Garvin, executive director of Unsheltered Utah.

The First United Methodist Church has opened its doors on six nights where temperatures dropped near freezing. People experiencing homelessness can seek shelter inside throughout the night and access a meal, on-scene medics and additional resources.

Advocates and security are present throughout the night to manage any conflicts.

“We see people in pretty desperate need by the time it’s 2 or 3 in the morning and they realize that it’s too cold for them to be outside to get here and we don’t have space and it’s kind of a crisis,” Garvin said.

Nearly every night the church’s doors have opened and reached full capacity at 85 people. On one night, advocates had to turn away 25 people. Advocates call other shelters to check for additional beds, provide transportation when necessary and when there is no availability, provide tools to survive the frigid temperatures.

The church’s and advocates’ efforts were praised by state and city officials following the deaths.

“We were able to do it and the city didn’t do it. Every year winter comes and every year that I’ve been doing this, the city is unprepared to protect its most vulnerable citizens,” said Carl Moore of Our Unsheltered Relatives.

“We as boots on the ground, as people without having our hands tied by bureaucracies, we’re able to do this. We can do this if people get out of our way and don’t give us red tape. We can keep people safe, but that’s not to say that we should be the ones that are doing this,” Moore added.

The efforts sidestep the city’s temporary ban on new permanent homeless shelters within the city, which was extended by the Salt Lake City Council. The ban came amid an increase in homelessness across the state. The COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, rising rent or home prices, lack of affordable housing and cost of living having further complicated the issue.

“Salt Lake has grown so rapidly in the last few years and the situation on the ground for people who are trying to live here and make a living here has become increasingly difficult. Our systems are inadequate to catch people as they move to the margins,” said Reverend Laura Young of South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society.

“That’s both a political problem and it’s also a moral problem.”

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