OGDEN -- With winter bearing down, the homeless situation in Weber County is worse than it was a year ago, but now it's seen as an ongoing reality, not an emergency, and that makes a difference in how agencies attack it.
This year, there will be no emergency fund drive to build a quick safety net to keep people in their homes.
Last year, $450,000 was raised for the Safety Net fund, which provided rent and utility assistance to hundreds of families, brought another doctor to Midtown Medical and bought bunk beds for St. Anne's Center.
Instead, planning and coordination are being combined with efforts to better use existing agency funds, and officials are plotting to make sure the Legislature doesn't make things worse.
At the second United Way homeless summit Wednesday, agency after agency gave statistics showing that, while last year's Safety Net program did hold back the flood for a while, the water is still rising.
Demands for food, rental assistance, housing aid and even a place to spend the night have all outstripped the numbers that scared agency directors last year.
At the same time, funds are tightening up.
Marci Valdez, director of Catholic Community Services, said a food drive last week that had a goal of 60,000 pounds brought in only 4,500 pounds.
Ogden city schools have seen use of the free and reduced-cost lunch program rise to 35 percent of enrollment after being stable at 28 percent for years.
Asked if United Way wanted to hold another emergency fund drive, however, Lesli Herold, United Way's director of community impact, said no, adding it conflicted with too many agreements United Way has with other agencies and, besides, the other agencies didn't seem to be as scared this year as they were last year.
"What I'm hearing is, even though you aren't hyperventilating like you were last year, it's worse," she said.
In response, Jeni Canter, director of St. Anne's Center, said, "We learned to breathe through it."
Sherm Losee, chairman of the United Way board of directors, said one worry he had last year was that the emergency campaign conflicted with the regular campaign.
It's a fact that most people have only so much to give every year, he said, and like Herold, he said there doesn't seem to be the aura of crisis this time around.
He said it was time to decide whether to deal with the problem again in the short term or look to a longer term way to attack the problem. The Community Foundation of Utah's Fraser Nelson, who facilitated the meeting, said that was a good idea.
"Last year, you were in an emergency situation and you created an emergency fund," she said.
"But it's not an emergency anymore. You can't pull the emergency rabbit out of the hat."
What they can do, she said, is work locally to make sure that available funds are used in the best way possible.
For example, she said, another food drive, coordinated through the Boy Scouts and local churches, could be held. The normal Boy Scout food drive is in the spring, but Herold said she'd be willing to organize another one.
The Utah Legislature is looking at cutting another $800 million out of its budget this year.
The most inviting targets for such cuts tend to be human services, especially mental health, dental and eye care programs.
Lisa Nichols, at the Midtown Community Health Clinic, said she sees a lot of patients with expensive dental needs, including people in their 30s with no teeth.
"No teeth makes it very hard to get a job," she said, adding that such a situation also causes nutrition and other health problems.
The summit members decided to hold a meeting with Top of Utah lawmakers before the next legislative session to argue for protection of such programs as Baby Your Baby, dental and eye care, and mental health programs.
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