| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Salt Lake homeless see flaws in aid
Shelters during Games minimal, jobless man says
By James Thalman
Deseret News staff writer
They haven't been herded onto buses out of town or rounded up by police, but several of Salt Lake's homeless say they are feeling little more than cold comfort from the city's effort to provide shelter during the Olympics.
"The shelters are meager and minimal at best," said Jim Newfeld, an out-of-work electrician spending nights at the 500 West emergency shelter. "Not only that, the city is using us to pat themselves on the back about all they're doing. But it's not much, and it's all going away after this is over, anyway."
Newfeld and a group of aggravated residents at the convereted mattress warehouse known as the Serta Site on the west side were reacting to a Wednesday news conference there during which Mayor Rocky Anderson praised volunteers who have come to town to help the homeless. He said area social service agencies and hundreds of volunteers they coordinate have "set an Olympic record for caring for the homeless."
Had the volunteers not been there, said Pamela Atkinson, head of the Olympics homeless outreach program, "people would have been freezing to death on the street the past few weeks."
"That may be," said Mark Trujillo, who said until a couple weeks ago he had an apartment near LDS Hospital but lost his job and is temporarily disabled due to a leg injury.
"This ain't me," he said. "It's a place to go, but there are a lot of
people who want to work and can't find a job. If they really wanted to help they'd be handing out cell phones so we could chase jobs. If you don't have a phone number, or if you say you live in a shelter, they (employers) want nothing to do with you."
"We feel like we're under house detention," said a man who didn't give his name. "We're just kind of being set aside. There's a subliminal message in that sign out front. 'Perfect Sleeper.' They just want us all to be perfect sleepers and not say anything."
He said the shelter residents also resent the fact that anyone who wants to stay there must pass through a metal detector. "But none of you guys did. You just walked right on in. They think we're more likely to be criminals. But the easiest thing for a terrorist would have been to come this morning dressed like an Americorps volunteer."
The group said they don't have access to basic services such as hot water and bathroom facilities, which are limited inside or they are relegated to three portable toilets outside.
"How are we supposed to be getting our lives together?" said a woman who would only give her name as Hope. "They had plenty of time to prepare for this, and they had the money. Where is it? Where are all the shining examples of people they've helped? And when you can't even get your body clean, that is the worst," she said, adding that it appears to her several women at the shelter appear to be on the verge of suicide because they feel hopeless.
Community service agencies don't deny that homeless issues are long-range and difficult to solve. But they also say they at least deserve credit for facing up to them with the whole world watching. They report handling 200 to 300 more residents per night at shelters than is usual this time of year and they have all committed to providing help for the needy after the Games-goers have gone home.
One of the things the mayor said he is proudest of is living in a community that didn't hide the fact that there are homeless people here, noting that it is the first host city that provided overflow shelters for the expected increase in need during an Olympics. "We have set an example to every host city in the future," he told reporters at the news conference.
If there is a crunch time during the Games for the homeless, it's right now, said Atkinson, a retired health-care administrator who has volunteered and coordinated efforts for the indigent all her life. "But I think we've probably peaked. There are the constant problems of finding jobs and permanent shelter, "problems that were here before the Games and will remain afterward. But Salt Lake should be proud of the way it and the state and the contributors have stepped up."
Matthew Minkevitch, executive director of The Road Home, formerly Traveler's Aid Society and main shelter provider on the Wasatch Front, said the overflow shelter is designed to be temporary. But the commitment to making progress after the Games, and perhaps using momentum about the issue created by them along with the increase in need spurred by the declining economy, might spawn some permanent solutions.
A report released Wednesday lists Utah as one of the 10 worst welfare states in the country. The National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support says Utah has one of the worst combinations of welfare policies on the books. The low-income advocacy group said Utah has used welfare funds to pay for other programs; it has set less than federally approved time limits for welfare recipients and has cut back welfare to work programs.
Idaho ranked as the worst state.
E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com
|
|
February 21, 2002
|
