Visits to social and community establishments and services by persons experiencing homelessness after shelter decentralization

Persons experiencing homelessness (PEH) are challenged by inadequate transportation and shelter locations that limit access to employment, healthcare, establishments, social and community services. Surveys were collected from 106 PEH in shelters in Salt Lake County, Utah, to examine the number of social and community establishment and service visits after a centralized downtown shelter location was changed to a scattered site model with three dispersed locations. This study used mixed clustering methods to examine if there was any change in establishment and service visits for PEH based on shelter locations and for PEH at-risk health populations that were older, on Medicaid/Medicare, had disability benefits, or had difficulty walking due to a health condition. Findings suggest that PEH who received disability benefits were significantly less likely to visit social and community establishments and services as frequently post-decentralization. Additional findings suggest that the shelter furthest away from downtown Salt Lake City post-decentralization had a disproportionate number of PEH who did not frequently visit social and community establishments and services. Future shelter relocation models should consider these patterns and potential accessibility issues to ensure PEH needs are being adequately supported.