‘What can be better than giving back?’: Volunteers hold health and services fair for homeless, conduct count

Written by E. George Goold
January 29, 2022

FEATURE — I arrived in St. George almost a year ago and immediately learned that this is an expensive place to live.

We’ve all seen the numbers by now – St. George, according to census data, is among the fastest growing cities in America. While there are many economic and cultural upsides to real estate development and rapid growth, there can be a flipside to it as well: affordable housing is becoming harder and harder to come by.

And more and more working-class people are losing their places to live.

In an effort to better understand the problem and to get a more informed perspective on the homeless situation in St. George, I volunteered Saturday to work a shift at the Health and Services Fair at Switchpoint Community Resource Center.

The fair was held over a period of three days and was set up in the Community Room at Switchpoint, located at 948 N. 1300 West in St. George.

Nursing students from Dixie State University at a Health and Services Fair at Switchpoint Community Resource Center, St. George, Utah, Jan. 29, 2022

As reported previously in St. George News, the homeless shelter at Switchpoint has 84 beds and is in the process of applying for grant funds to expand and renovate its 40-year-old facility.

The Health and Services Fair held there Thursday, Friday and Saturday was an effort not only to reach out to the homeless community and offer a variety of services, but also was part of a yearly effort to count the actual number of homeless people that live in Utah.

According to a press release from the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, the purpose of this yearly statewide count, called the Point-in-Time Count, is to gain a deeper understanding of how many individuals and families in Utah are experiencing unsheltered homelessness.

Switchpoint conducted its portion of the Point-in-Time Count by using the Health and Services Fair. Volunteers helped clients sign up for medical, dental and eye exams, offered them goods and services and then interviewed them for the count.

There were also a variety of health products available at the fair like canned food, hygiene products and extra clothing. There was a barber’s chair set up for free haircuts.

During my two hours on Saturday (the last day of the event) I saw between 10 and 15 clients come to the fair. Switchpoint Executive Director Carol Hollowell told St. George News that there were upwards of 120 people attending the fair the previous two days.

Hollowell said that local city police officers and Washington County Sheriff’s Office personnel conducted a count of the homeless population over the three days as well, and their numbers will be combined with Switchpoint’s to come up with a reasonable estimate of the homeless population in St. George.

While that number won’t be tabulated until next week sometime, it was obvious during the course of the fair that the makeup of the homeless population is changing.

“There’s the old stigma about the homeless, that they’re all vagrants and bums,” Hollowell said. “That’s not what we’re seeing, for the most part. Our homeless numbers have grown for working people. Workforce housing is so slim; that’s a huge issue.”

“We have to create affordable housing, and that’s been extremely difficult with real estate prices for the last five or ten years,” she added.

St. George residents, many of them employed, get “priced out” of the real estate market — rentals are harder to find and are no longer affordable, and houses are bought by people who are moving here from somewhere else that can pay cash.

These volunteers conducted free dental exams at a Health and Services Fair at Switchpoint Community Resource Center, St. George, Utah, Jan. 29, 2022 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News

Volunteering and working at Switchpoint can be an emotional roller coaster, seeing people who are struggling to survive without a shelter over their heads even when they have jobs.

“When you make a difference, if you change their lives, it’s doing good,” Hollowell said. “If you can give a person a coat or help them find a job, didn’t we just do some good today?”  

Kimberly Skinner, in the nursing program at Dixie State University, is no stranger to the fear that homelessness is right around the corner for a lot of local residents.

Skinner was a client at Switchpoint a few years ago at a low point in her life. Addiction and economic difficulties left her without a place to live for her and her two children.

They were able to stay at Switchpoint for a couple of nights before she moved back in with her mother. Then she was able to find low income housing and slowly put her life back together.

“It’s very humbling, having been on the other side of it,” Skinner said. “I’ve been a volunteer at Switchpoint for a couple of years now. What can be better than giving back to those that helped me when I needed it so much?”

Skinner said that it feels good to motivate others and help them feel like homelessness doesn’t have to be permanent.

“There are so many services offered that a lot of (homeless) people don’t even know about,” she said. “Mostly what they need is a pat on the back, a hug. Sometimes they just need a hand to hold.” 

Skinner hopes that clients at the fair can see her and understand that there is a way out.

“There are opportunities that will help you pull yourself out,” Skinner said. “If I can do it, anybody can do it.”

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric George Goold came to St. George News from southwestern Colorado, where he was a radio news reporter. He has been a journalist for over 20 years in five different states. He graduated with a master's degree in English from Kansas State University and writes nonfiction as well. Goold has been published in Sunstone Magazine and has done multiple public readings about local history. When he has free time, he enjoys chess, movies and dogs.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews

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