First Step House brings permanent supportive housing to downtown Salt Lake City's historic Stratford Apartments.
Small Lake City
By Arica Roberts
The mission of First Step House is to help people build lives of meaning, purpose and recovery. And it recently took a new step in that mission, working in partnership with Salt Lake County to update the Stratford Apartments in the heart of downtown into permanent supportive housing for individuals with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders.
The project adds to the facelift at 200 East and 200 South, located above businesses like The People's Coffee and Mercy Tattoo in a historic building that once operated as a Studebaker Garage. First Step housing is targeted at very low-income individuals who meet disability and income criteria, with rents based on 30% of their monthly income.
Resident referrals come from a variety of sources, including hospitals, insurance providers, mental health courts and other community organizations serving this population, such as Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Teams. On-site case management services are provided to help residents maintain stability, access treatment and avoid losing their housing.
"The goal here is to maximize periods of stability and minimize periods of instability," said First Step House executive director Shawn McMillen.
In 2017, the Salt Lake County Division of Behavioral Health approached First Step House with a need in the community for permanent housing. With First Step House's experience providing transitional housing—and their partners facilitating affordable housing vouchers and low income housing tax credits—it was possible to rehabilitate the Stratford Apartments property, a more than 100-year-old building that at some point in the past was damaged by fire. First Step House started work on the building a year and a half ago
"We've totally remodeled the second and third floors in some instances all the way down to the studs," McMillen reported. "[We] put in new water lines, put in new electrical, and brought the building into the 21st century."
He said that First Step House isn't the typical transitional housing that individuals pass through. If a resident needs to go to the hospital for a psychiatric admission, First Step House will preserve their housing for up to 90 days. If the resident is struggling with addiction and they're at risk to lose their housing because they haven't been paying their portion of rent or their behavior has been disruptive, First Step House can place them in a recovery program.
"These are folks who hold the lease, so they have all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that you do," McMillen explained.
There is the potential to expand this model. First Step House has previously developed two permanent supportive housing projects—Central City Apartments and Medina Place—and there is growing recognition of the need for this type of housing and the role of government and community partners in addressing it.
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