More people in southern Utah have been looking for help to deal with homelessness this year. As of the end of August, Switchpoint Community Resource Center had already sheltered more people at its St. George location than it did in all of 2023 and served more meals there than it did in 2024.
That tracks across Utah, where homelessness increased by 18% in 2025, according to the state’s annual Point In Time count. The count also showed upticks in the percentages of children, seniors and veterans.
As homelessness becomes a more visible issue, Switchpoint Executive Director Carol Hollowell understands why cities and businesses can feel frustrated. But she said this growing need won’t be solved by quick fixes.
“It can't be that we just do a roundup and go stick them in a camp,” Hollowell said. “It has to be with some humanity and some opportunity.”
That type of comprehensive, step-by-step approach has worked in southern Utah, she said. Beyond the immediate needs of shelter and meals, her team offers people assistance with everything from resume writing to childcare to affordable housing.
It comes down to looking at the facts of what really helps someone get back on their feet, “versus the emotional piece of, ‘Well, I don't want people on my street or I don't want them in my park,’” Hollowell said.
That’s why she is worried about signals in national politics that may indicate a shift in the way the U.S. approaches this issue.
The Trump administration described homelessness as a public safety threat in a July executive order and called for people to be put into long-term institutional settings. In the weeks that followed, federal, state and city authorities made headlines by mass clearing homeless encampments in cities like Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago.
If that trickles down to Utah and lawmakers cut funds for homeless services, it could get in the way of Switchpoint’s local progress. The reality, Hollowell said, is that providing people a path from homelessness to stability ends up costing taxpayers less in the long run.
“Are we actually making this more expensive and longer lasting for people,” she asked. “Or are we going to look at the most cost-effective, time-effective way? And that's putting people into housing, not moving camps over and over and over again.”
Part of what makes Switchpoint’s approach possible in St. George, she said, is its partnership with local law enforcement.
“They're not booking them, arresting them. They're saying, ‘Hey, you can't sleep in Vernon Worthen Park today. But let me take you to Switchpoint, where you can get help.’ That's a game changer,” Hollowell said.
The first point of contact for people experiencing homelessness in St. George is often the police department’s bike patrol team, called the E.C.H.O. Unit.
Brock Aldred, the sergeant who leads the eight-person team, said it takes time and commitment to build trust. Being on bikes helps, he said, as does wearing different uniforms that set them apart from other officers.
“We're having a conversation in the beginning, seeing if we have the ability to help this person,” he said. “These are still human beings. We treat them as such.”
Being able to offer people a ride to a place like Switchpoint that offers a variety of services makes his job easier, he said. His unit also connects people with other types of care through contacts at the Department of Veterans Affairs and a behavioral health facility. He believes this proactive approach has allowed St. George’s homelessness response to be more effective than in some other cities.
“We get to have the freedom to go and address some small things before they turn into bigger issues,” Aldred said.
In St. George, Hollowell said Switchpoint has seen significant increases in people living in vehicles just outside the city limits on Bureau of Land Management property — something that had already been happening for years. She’s also seen an increase in people who have a job, but still can’t afford housing. The median price for a home in St. George is around $620,000 according to federal data.
Local ordinances do not allow any camping within city limits, including at parks or trails. So, the police will eventually remove a tent, but Aldred said that typically only happens after the person has received multiple warnings.
The department also holds their property in storage rather than throwing it out, he said, and it allows them to pick it up at a later date. A 2024 report from ProPublica that looked at 27 cities nationwide found that sweeping away encampments often means residents lose items they need to survive, such as medications, clothes and important paperwork.
Another difference-maker for St. George, Aldred said, is that the bike patrol unit trains the rest of the department about how to help people experiencing homelessness.
“The biggest challenge I see is that we have a lot of different hats that we wear within our unit,” he said. “So, that's why it's important for our entire police department to buy into addressing this.”
