PROVO — A major donor is behind the effort to raise $11 million to build and operate Provo's first dedicated shelter for the homeless.
The Food and Care Coalition has sold its three buildings in downtown Provo to the city and purchased five acres in the city's East Bay business area. The site is across the street from the East Bay Post Office at approximately 300 E. 920 South.
Plans call for a two-story building with 37 rooms for transitional housing, 26 rooms for men and 11 for women, said Brent Crane, executive director of the Food and Care Coalition.
Crane said the donor, who has thus far requested anonymity, approached him with money for a new center on the condition it include the shelter. Plans call for the second floor to house the center's daytime operations — the dining room where the coalition serves meals and provides showers, a dental clinic, a computer lab, a classroom, a barber shop, a laundry room and a Wasatch Mental Health office.
The dorms would be on the first floor.
Instead of building homeless shelters, Provo and Utah County have for more than 20 years had a sheltering program that consists of providing motel vouchers to those who need a place to sleep.
A wide range of local caregivers concentrated on creating transitional housing to move homeless from emergency housing toward self-sufficiency.
"The strategy for the past couple of decades has been to increase services to keep pressure off our sheltering system," said Bill Hulterstrom, executive director of the United Way of Utah County.
Crane said the new Food and Care Coalition center in East Bay doesn't change that philosophy because the facility is transitional housing that fits a national trend. The Bush administration's 10-year homeless initiative calls for doing away with funding for what have been called homeless or congregate or emergency shelters because studies show transitional housing is more effective.
"Congregate shelters are where anybody can come in at night, crash and leave the next day," Crane said.
The 37 beds at the planned center could take emergency cases but would be focused on keeping people for longer periods to help them find stability.
"Nearly $1 million was spent on motel vouchers in Utah County for homeless people last year," Crane said. "The problem with that is it's money just thrown away and it's a bottomless pit. In our center, they can come in for a month, three months, six months."
Living rent-free with access to work training, men and women at the center would deposit income in savings. When they left they would be financially prepared to meet typical apartment down payments of the first and last months' rent and deposit.
"This facility is going to buy that homeless person the time they need to save, to get into work training and look for a job," Crane said.
Crane said the land, construction and outfitting the new building would cost $6.2 million. He is seeking another $5 million for an endowment to cover operations. The new center would operate around the clock instead of 12 hours a day.
So far, more than $5 million has been raised, mostly through private contributions. Some money has come from the Pamela Atkinson Homeless Trust Fund. Orem has provided money from its federal community development block grant funds. Crane hopes the Provo City Council will dedicate some of its annual budget toward a work training program.
Other donors include Internet publishing company owner Don Oldham, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Fraser Bullock, former chief financial officer for Salt Lake Organizing Committee of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games
The Food and Care soup kitchen provides around 300 meals a day — more than 100,000 meals annually.
Those who enter are served, but Crane is quick to qualify meals are not just a handout.
"We have a contract with Provo city and the Downtown Business Alliance of Provo," Crane said. "Our homeless clients hang and water the flower baskets you see. They power-wash sidewalks and change the decorative banners."
Crane said he approached Provo Mayor Lewis Billings about selling the coalition's three downtown buildings on the corner of 100 North and 300 West.
The timing was fortuitous. Billings and the City Council hope to build a conference center on the north end of that block as part of their downtown revitalization plans. Moving the coalition also should reduce panhandling and petty crime in the downtown area, Crane said.
The city is paying $1.25 million for the buildings — the headquarters, the former Sherwin-Williams paint store and the old Credit Bureau building. Money from the sale is earmarked for construction of the new Food and Care center.
Downtown Provo has attracted homeless people because key federal, state and county offices are located in the county seat. Staying nearby makes it easy for them to pick up food stamps or disability checks. Provo also is home to the vast majority of the county's rental housing and the most frequent bus service.
Moving out of downtown is Crane's choice because he wanted a large plot where he could create a buffer around the center to minimize impact on surrounding businesses and provide the opportunity for expansion.
Bus service or a shuttle could bring clients downtown. A bus stop is two blocks away, and Crane is talking with the Utah Transit Authority about adding a stop directly in front of the facility.
To contribute to the FACC go to www.foodandcare.org.
E-mail: knelson@desnews.com, twalch@desnews.com