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Source: Standard-Examiner, Ogden, UtahDec.迷你倉 15--OGDEN -- It's 6:30 a.m. on a bitterly cold day in December. Outside the darkened offices of the Weber Human Services building, at 26th Street and Lincoln Avenue, Pete Caldwell shoulders his backpack and trudges off through the overnight frosting of snow toward the Ogden Intermodal Transit Center -- the fancy term for the bus/train station.Along the way, passing in and out of the glow of streetlights, Caldwell points to various places he's encountered the homeless."I came across somebody sleeping in these bushes once," he says, waving toward a spot near Ogden's Union Station. "That really startled me."He continues north, beyond the transit center, before eventually crossing the railroad tracks -- headed for that no-man's land bordered by the tracks and the Weber and Ogden rivers.On this day, like every other Monday and Friday, Caldwell is out scouring Weber County, looking for people who have no home of their own. He's up early because, contrary to the stereotypes, the homeless tend to be early risers, and he wants to catch them before they leave their camps."Most wake up early, get out and go," he said. "Some of it is so they're not seen going out of their camp -- by the authorities or other homeless."His effort is part of a new outreach program recently started by the Weber Housing Authority. Caldwell's boss, executive director Andi Watkins, says there are about 230 people in Weber County living in shelters or transitional housing; these are what they call the sheltered homeless.Another 55 or so are staying in places not meant for human habitation. It is this second group, the chronic homeless, that the new outreach program is targeting."We're trying to reach the most vulnerable homeless," Watkins says. "Individuals who have no access to any services."And once they find them?"We'll try to build a relationship -- build that trust -- as they usually don't trust others," she said.Food, gloves, beaniesBeneath an overpass spanning the railroad tracks, Caldwell finds several piles of trash."One identifier of a homeless camp is lots of trash," Caldwell said.He pokes around in the bushes a bit, checking for places where someone might have stayed the night -- or nights -- all the while repeatedly identifying himself in a clear voice."Weber Housing," he calls out in the waxing dawn. "I've got food and gloves and beanies. Is anybody here?" No answer. He goes through his spiel again, focusing his attention on a battered tarp lying on the ground. He reaches for it, describing his every move aloud, so as not to take anyone by surprise."I'm just going to lift the corner of this tarp to check to see if anyone is under here," he calls out.It's empty. Caldwell moves on.Farther into the woods, he comes upon a tent hidden among some thick brush. Again, the verbal offer of food and warm clothing. A man parts the tent flap, Caldwell talks into the opening for a moment. Two men are staying there. Caldwell retrieves a couple of knit caps from a backpack; an older, weathered hand reaches out and takes them.Caldwell then leaves a little food outside the tent -- Styrofoam cups of soup and the like -- then asks if they need anything else."This other guy could use another blanket," comes the reply from the tent.Caldwell leaves with a promise to return on Monday with blankets. (When he returns three days later, no one will be at the camp. Caldwell leaves the blankets there, just in case it's not completely abandoned.)'A good sign'Some mornings, the new Weber Housing Authority outreach coordinator might come across one or two homeless people. On others, he might find as many as 10. On this particular day, given that the thermometer has dipped to a mere 3 degrees above zero, Caldwell is actually glad he didn't find more people."That's a good sign," he says. "Hopefully they all found someplace warm to stay last night."All in all, Caldwell pronounces it "a pretty successful morning.""Anytime you can contact someone new, I consider that a success," he said. "Of course, the ultimate success is in eventually housing them."And that's the end goal here, according to Watkins."Before, we didn't have an outreach strategy," she said. "But now, we're just trying to develop a relationship with these individuals, to develop their trust."They're trying to do that with gloves, hats and food."We do have an ulterior motive," Watkins said. "Our No. 1 goal is to keep them stably housed and find them some sort of income."Uphill battleIf Caldwell is able to build trust with this most vulnerable group, he may eventually be able to talk them into going to a shelter or accepting other housing help. But it won't be easy. Mental illness and substance abuse are rampant among the homeless -- taken together, those two account for "almost all" of those who are out-of-doors in the winter, according to Caldwell.Later in the morning, Caldwell explores an abandoned building on the corner of Wall Avenue and 24th Street. Although the building appears boarded up tight, the door is not locked; it pushes open easily. Using a flashlight in the near dark迷你倉樂器ess, he walks through the various rooms, bits of broken glass crunching beneath his feet. "Weber Housing," he repeats. "I have food and gloves and beanies ..."There are signs of recent occupancy here -- an old mattress, a place where a fire had been built, the telltale piles of trash -- but no people.Along with attempting to gain the trust of the chronically homeless, Caldwell and Watkins say they're also in the process of mapping the locations of all of the homeless camps in Weber County.Success story?Although the outreach program is barely a month old, there are signs that it's already starting to work. Early in the afternoon, Caldwell goes to visit a 63-year-old homeless woman who uses "Ann" as her street name. He's hoping she will be the Weber Housing Authority's first successful placement from the outreach program.Caldwell drives to an open field near a busy Ogden street and walks toward the far end of the field. There, in a slight depression in the land, near a couple of bare trees and a fallen trunk, is a large tarp, folded over on itself. Underneath that tarp, in single-digit weather, huddles Ann."On June 11th, I bought a sleeping bag from Shopko," Ann explains. "I was too depressed to do anything else."She's been living in that field ever since.The family living in a home just behind where Ann stays is aware of her presence; Ann says they brought her dinner on Thanksgiving."And they'd have cookouts in the summer, and hand me food over the fence," she says.Change of seasonsBeing homeless in the warmer seasons is much easier, Ann admits."In the summertime, it's kind of fun," she said. "These other homeless guys there had a radio, and we'd listen to that song 'We Own the Night.' It was fun for a while. In the summer, it's nice."Not so when winter comes."The hardest part about being homeless is nighttime, when it's cold," she said.Sometimes, when the temperature plummets, Ann will go to a diner that's open 24 hours and "just sit up all night." For this reason, she's actually considering Caldwell's offer of housing help.The Weber Housing Authority was first alerted to Ann's whereabouts by a nephew, Rob Bommer, of Ogden. He's been trying to convince his aunt that she doesn't have to live this way. Bommer says there have been some "trials and tribulations" between Ann and her siblings, but contrary to what Ann might say, her family hasn't turned its back on her. They stand ready and willing to help, according to Bommer."She could be in a hotel room right now," he says. "But she won't come in. She runs. When somebody starts to get close to her, she runs. ... I can't get her to come out from underneath that tarp."Rodeo queenThe problem, Bommer says, is that Ann is a clinically diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic."It's horrible," he says. "It ate up her father, ate up her sisters. They've gotten to the point where they're afraid of her."What I would say is ... the reason (Ann) is in the position she's in is because of her mental illness."But it wasn't always that way. Born and raised in Harrisville, Ann was a seemingly normal young woman back in the late 1960s."She was a rodeo queen. Absolutely beautiful," Bommer says, the anguish apparent in his voice.That was her early 20s. It was about that time, according to Bommer, that the schizophrenia started to kick in."Her behavior got more bizarre and more bizarre and more bizarre," he said. "It's just hearsay on my part, but she's probably supposed to be on medication."Bommer says Ann took off for California sometime after that."When she came back, she was worse," he said.Ann says she was married twice -- at age 29 and again at 36 -- but "it never worked out either time." Both marriages were over in less than a year.'It's not fair'The upshot of all this is that Ann has been on the streets -- off and on -- for roughly 35 years. Bommer says his aunt was usually on her own during the summers, but every winter her father would put her up in a motel until the spring. She's spent winters at the Millstream and Colonial motels in Ogden, among other places. But Ann's father passed away in August, which might explain why she's outdoors this winter. (Her mother died in November 2012.)Bommer says he agreed to be interviewed for this story in the hope it will shed light on the homeless problem."This story needs to be told," he said, "because nobody should be living like my aunt is living. It's not fair to any human being."Bommer calls his aunt's current situation "heart-wrenching.""I think about it when I go to sleep at night," he said. "I'm here in a warm bed, she's less than a mile and a half away from me, and I can't get her to come in out of the cold."But if Pete Caldwell and the Weber Housing Authority have anything to say about it, Ann won't face many more frigid nights under that tarp.Contact reporter Mark Saal at 801-625-4272, msaal@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @Saalman. Find him on Facebook at facebook.com/mark.saal.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) Visit the Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) at .standard.net Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉西貢