"It has got to be one of the biggest labors of love I've ever seen," Sen. The state also committed $100,000 annually in ongoing funding for its operations. The upcoming move was made possible by a one-time appropriation by the Utah Legislature this year giving the Inn Between $975,000 for the purchase of a new location, Correa said. The Inn Between has been operating at its current location since it was founded in August 2015. She hopes to eventually house 50 to 70 people at the new center, which she said has the space but not currently the funding to serve that many. The larger capacity will allow the Inn Between to better manage their waitlist, she said. "For those who are diagnosed with a terminal illness, we want to get them in through the door."Īccording to Correa, 44 homeless people died on the streets in the Salt Lake Valley in 2017. "My goal is zero deaths on the street," said Kim Correa, executive director of the Inn Between. 1300 South, where they have the capacity to treat 25. Goshen Street (1040 West), where there was room for 16 clients, into a space currently occupied by Hillside Rehabilitation Center, 1216 E. The hospice home is moving from a small former Catholic convent at 340 S. Lemieux was on hand Thursday as the Inn Between announced it will be moving her and other patients to an upgraded facility within two months, expanding the organization's capacity to house more people who are both homeless and terminally ill. "(If they) hadn't taken me in, I have no doubt I'd already be dead." But they brought that back," Lemieux said. … They've treated me with so much respect and so much dignity, I thought that was something I would never feel again. "They brought me in, they fed me, they clothed me, they gave me a shower. Though she is still terminally ill, she says everything else about the twilight of her life changed beginning that day. Lemieux is dying of hepatitis C, and until six months ago, she was prepared to die alone.īut after one particularly harrowing hospital visit, she was dropped off at the Inn Between, a hospice home for the destitute. SALT LAKE CITY - Linda Lemieux was living on the streets - "on the sidewalks, under jungle gyms at parks" - and being taken to the hospital two to three times a month out of an urgent need to have fluid drained from her stomach. Reading or replaying the story in itsĪrchived form does not constitute a republication of the story. That’s a memory that will stick forever.Only for your personal, non-commercial use. “He said what took us a few hours would have taken them a few months and thanked us. “At the end of the day, Mark, the manager of The INN Between, sat in a chair with a look of astonishment,” Diane recalls. In addition to volunteering at the center, the team collected money from local businesses and hosted a bake sale to donate funds to The INN Between. The team constructed eight planter boxes, organized the facility by moving furniture and made blankets for future residents. “It was truly a rewarding experience,” says Diane Mark, travel coordinator. “It was an afternoon of camaraderie, laughter, education and relationship-building with those at The INN Between.” This nonprofit center offers hospice care to Salt Lake City’s homeless community and relies heavily on volunteers to help provide for the needs of their residents. Forty team members from our projects and places division, which includes the travel and housing teams, recently volunteered at The INN Between.
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