MIDVALE — Construction of The Road Home's community winter shelter is on budget and on track for a mid-November opening.
"We expect to have substantial completion and our certificate of occupancy by Nov. 16," said Matt Minkevitch, executive director of The Road Home.
"We remain within the parameters of our budget, so so far, so good as far that is concerned."
Construction workers on the project have been able to gain some time on the schedule, so Monday's rain delay should not be an issue on the whole, he said.
"One of the key deadlines that we're facing is to have it enclosed by Labor Day, meaning the roof is on and it's sealed up," he said.
The Road Home has operated a winter overflow shelter in a World War II-era warehouse on the site since 1989. The nonprofit social services agency purchased the building in 2012 and planned to refurbish it.
Administrators and the nonprofit organization's board of directors later determined that the building's core problems would not be overcome with a remodeling job. The restrooms were dated, the kitchen and laundry facilities inadequate, and there were few spaces where caseworkers could talk to clients privately.
The structure was leveled in late March to make way for a new overflow shelter, which is being built by Hogan & Associates Construction of Centerville and was designed by NJRA Architects of Murray.
The new facility's design includes amenities intended to encourage families to sit down at tables to eat meals together as well as an outdoor loft, where people can get a breath of fresh air.
The shelter is permitted to operate during winter months as an overflow shelter to The Road Home's downtown shelter at 210 S. Rio Grande Street.
The downtown facility is one of several homeless services under review in a pair of processes led by Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County to evaluate their locations and impacts as well as the services that are offered.
Minkevitch said the shelter's daily census has swelled as a growing number of working poor people struggle to find affordable housing, he said.
Some live in their cars, outdoors or double up in housing with other people.
"Many of those people are doubled up in precarious situations, either they’re about to lose that housing or those families are in a lease violation or something even more nefarious. We have all this exposure to risk for people who are poor," he said.
While shelter is "second place to housing," Minkevitch said the shelter can help people transition to permanent supportive housing or other services that can help them stabilize their condition.
Minkevitch said he is concerned that a recent claim by a 69-year-old woman who told a newspaper columnist that she contracted methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, while staying at the downtown shelter will discourage people who need help there.
"Unfortunately, in hospitals, convalescent care facilities and dormitories like ours, it is a fact of life that we have these types of issues, with which we must deal. Do they happen? Absolutely. To suggest that we’re derelict in our duties, I would say, certainly not," Minkevitch said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MRSA infections occur in health care and community settings.
"Anyone can get MRSA through direct contact with an infected wound or by sharing personal items, such as towels or razors, that have touched infected skin. MRSA infection risk can be increased when a person is in certain activities or places that involve crowding, skin-to-skin contact, and shared equipment or supplies. This might include athletes, day care and school students, military personnel in barracks, and people who recently received inpatient medical care," the website states.
According to the CDC, about 1 in 3 people carries staph in their nose, usually without any illness. Two in 100 people carry MRSA. There are not data showing the total number of people who get MRSA skin infections in the community, the website states.
Upon hearing the woman's claim, The Road Home immediately contacted the Salt Lake County Health Department, Minkevitch said.
"We invited them down to look at our cleaning protocol, review our products that we’re using in the event this could be a public health issue. This is something any congregate facility should be concerned about," he said.
Pamela Davenport, spokeswoman for the Salt Lake County Health Department, confirmed a county health official discussed the shelter's cleaning practices with James Woolf, The Road Home's director of shelter operations and maintenance, and determined its protocols are appropriate.
Minkevitch said The Road Home shuts down the downtown shelter "for a good couple hours for a deep clean every single day," which includes wiping down and disinfecting every bed in the facility.
"Our mattresses are impermeable so we can spray them down with disinfectant, which we do daily. Those are things we’ve taken into account when we created the dormitories we have. We put in the metal bunks because we were concerned about bed bugs," he said.
Minkevitch said it is distressing that seniors have to turn to homeless shelters as a place to live.
"That anyone of retirement age has to stay in a shelter is indicative of larger problems. I would hope the retirees across America would not need to turn to homeless shelters," he said.
Email: marjorie@deseretnews.com