After months of planning, the Utah County Winter Response Task Force has announced its state-approved plan to address homelessness once cold weather arrives.

Beginning Oct. 15 and extending through April 30, 2025, three Provo facilities will rotate as warming centers with a capacity of up to 75 people per night, according to a press release.

The county piloted a warming centers program last winter, when three Provo churches opened their doors to homeless people on code blue alert nights under a state-issued directive when the temperature dropped below 15 degrees.

Following the 2023 Utah legislative session, the county was mandated to have a full-fledged response to accommodate homeless residents in the winter.

While the previous winter’s response got underway later than initially intended, advocates called it a success and took notes on what to do differently going forward.

In April, Kena Mathews, housing director at Community Action Services and Food Bank in Provo, told the Daily Herald that the warming centers ended up being open about 20 nights total and served between 15-40 people each night.

For the 2024-2025 winter season, the warming centers will provide more beds, and between the three facilities, homelessness residents will have a place to go seven nights a week.

Two of the centers are churches previously used last winter, with the addition of a former surplus building located between Provo and Springville in incorporated Utah County.

The warming centers rotation is as follows:

• Monday and Tuesday: The Genesis Project Provo, 875 S. 170 East.
• Wednesday and Friday through Sunday: the Utah County Red Building, 2855 S. State St.
• Thursday: Provo Seventh-day Adventist Church, 255 S. 700 East.

“We tried really hard to find churches or other facilities in other parts of the county to be warming centers; that was a goal of the task force, to spread this out more so that not everything was right here in Provo,” said Isaac Paxman, Provo’s deputy mayor and vice chair of the Winter Response Task Force, in the press release. “In the end, Utah County was the one that stepped up, not just to lead the task force but to provide a facility on county land outside of our city.”

Continuum of Care Project Coordinator Heather Hogue says, ideally, the centers should be in areas that are accessible, safe and near public transit.

In regard to the county building option, she said that location checks off some of those boxes.

“That accessibility component is really critical. I love the idea of having this in between those two areas because we are making that more accessible for people that aren’t just located in Provo,” Hogue said in a previous interview with the Daily Herald.

Through what’s being called an “ecosystem of services” to serve Utah County’s unsheltered population during the upcoming cold season, other resources and services are being provided, including food and basic needs, behavioral health counseling and housing pipelines, as well as day passes for Utah Transit Authority services, according to the release.

Hogue said beyond keeping individuals warm on the cold winter nights, the task force wanted to dig deeper to look at ways to provide wraparound services to Utah County’s unsheltered people.

“One of the things about the winter task force that convened is getting to really address not just the symptomatic things, like how do we keep people alive? But how do we decrease our numbers of unsheltered every year by looking at long term solutions,” she said.

The work appears to be showing some results.

Utah County reported 175 unhoused people during the annual Point-In-Time count, a census of people experiencing homelessness across three nights in January. That’s about an 8% decrease compared to the prior year.

The Utah County Winter Response Task Force believes this state-approved plan is a testament to the collaboration between advocates, state and local leaders, stakeholders and longtime Utah County organizations that have worked for decades to offer resources to the unsheltered.

“We’ve worked harmoniously to get this done,” Karen McCandless, Community Action Services and Food Bank CEO and task force member, said in the release. “It’s not that we all see every issue exactly the same; it’s that we respect each other and share a strong desire to serve the common good and to serve those experiencing homelessness.”

Each warming center will open at 9 p.m. and close at 8 a.m. Guests are encouraged to visit the Food and Care Coalition for a warm breakfast if they desire.

Children will not be housed at warming centers. Instead, they and their parents will be provided with hotel or other accommodations, the press release stated.

Those needing more information regarding active centers and availability can call 801-441-1993 or dial 211.

The plan calls for each warming center to be staffed by one to two professional workers and between three to five volunteers during operational hours.

According to the press release, more volunteers are still needed. Anyone who is interested can inquire at https://app.vomo.org/opportunity/warming-center.