Advocates, county staff and commissioners on Oct. 20 discussed a request to seed stipends so people with recent lived experience of homelessness can participate in the Weber Local Homeless Council and subcommittees.

Nancy Griggs, a homeless advocate who described herself as a person with lived experience, summarized the barriers people face when asked to join planning bodies: many people who recently exited homelessness lack reliable transportation, paid time off, or money for incidental costs. “We’re asking them to miss work to come to our meetings,” a county staffer said. “They cannot afford to miss that time at work…so we need to pay them.”

Kenton Jepsen and county staff asked commissioners for guidance on a proposed $50,000 allocation to provide stipends or modest living support to enable participation by a small number of individuals (staff described a plan for three or four additional positions beyond existing funded roles). Speakers said such payments would help recruit youth and adults with recent experience of homelessness, criminal justice involvement or domestic violence to serve on steering committees.

Commissioners suggested several steps rather than an immediate county appropriation: pursue state matching or an appropriation (several commissioners offered to contact Representative Ray Ward and other state contacts), approach neighboring counties (Davis, Box Elder, Cache) and cities for matched contributions, and identify existing county budget lines that might be reallocated rather than creating a new ongoing county expense. Several commissioners said they prefer to pursue ongoing state funding rather than relying solely on one-time county sweeps.

No formal appropriation was made during the work session. County staff and advocates said they would pursue conversations with state officials and neighboring jurisdictions, explore smaller local contributions to “seed” the effort, and return with more detailed proposals and budget figures.