The Salvation Army, an international organization, opened its third Utah location in Provo on Oct. 26 to address the growing need for assistance in the community.

“The need is at very high levels, and so as a humanitarian organization, they’re trying to keep up with the need,” said Provo Salvation Army board member Tim Smith. “In Denver, for example, they’re sleeping 2,000 people a night and feeding 3,000 people a day. … In Salt Lake, the numbers aren’t that high but they don’t have as large of facilities yet.”

Located at 3549 N. University Ave., Suite 100, in an office space at the Yorktown Building, the Provo Salvation Army center will not provide housing services but rather will focus on preventative measures against homelessness.

And one demographic the center is hoping to assist is college students.

“Turns out, we have a lot of college students here in Utah County,” Smith said. “They tend to be people from outside the town, and so they’re unfamiliar with local community resources, and so they don’t reach out.”

Homelessness among students is often manifested in struggling people couch surfing at their friend’s apartment or sleeping in their cars, Smith explained.

The Salvation Army has resources to help. Currently, the Provo center can provide rent, utility and gas assistance. Additional programs are in the works, including car repairs and motel vouchers.

“There are different qualifications when people come in, and so they go through a screening with me or with a volunteer, or one of our board members,” said Provo Salvation Army Director Piercynn Saluone. “We hope that the students learn that this is a resource, and we’re trying to bring on a few students to our advisory board so that they can help get that word out.”

Beyond students, any struggling community members are welcome to reach out. Saluone said the majority of people helped so far are non-students.

Though the office opened just two weeks ago, Saluone was appointed the Provo Salvation Army director in January and has been working to grow community partners since. As of now, she is the only full-time employee, and there are five volunteer board members.

Critical to the center’s success is donations from community members, because any donation the Salvation Army receives nationwide goes to the center nearest to where the donation was placed.

“It is absolutely vital,” Saluone said. “Luckily, our kettle season is starting in days, and all that money that gets donated to us gets put into the center so that we can put it right back into the community. And it’s really exciting because there’s the core up in Salt Lake, and they’ve been able to serve so many people up there, and this whole Utah County community has just been missing those services. And so all of that money that goes into our center will go right back to the community.”