For more than two months, Ron and Katherine Barrett have spent their days searching for an apartment and their nights sleeping in the cold in a tent with a tarp over it on a patch of grass in Salt Lake City.
The couple have been in and out of motels since around 2008 and on the streets since early 2017. And they’ve been searching for a place to live since Nov. 20, when they received a housing voucher that provides rental assistance to those who are chronically homeless.
But it’s been difficult to find a place that meets the price and location requirements established by the federal government under the Section 8 Shelter Plus Care Housing Voucher — particularly as Utah faces what some have labeled an affordable housing crisis.