Iron County Care & Share reports rising demand and warns of fragile funding as winter begins

James Jettin, executive director of Iron County Care & Share, told the Cedar City Council on Oct. 15 that demand for emergency food and shelter has climbed this year and that the organization is relying on the city's mitigation funds to sustain core services. "So far we've distributed 312,000-plus pounds of food to the community," Jettin said, and the program has provided roughly 3,500 food boxes and nearly 10,000 pounds of non-food items such as hygiene supplies and diapers.

Jettin said intake to the shelter has risen to 286 people year to date, a 24% increase from the same time in 2023, and that the composition of clients is shifting toward older adults and people with disabilities. "One out of every four of our shelter clients right now is over the age of 55," he said. Self-reported chronic conditions and mental-health needs have increased: Jettin said chronic health reports rose from 36% in 2024 to 43% in 2025, and self-reported mental-health disorders from 40% to 57% year to date.

Jettin described how the city's mitigation funding has been used locally: to hire private security at the shelter (which he said cut calls for police assistance by about 40%), to supplement staffing for drop-in services, to fund a community case manager and to provide limited motel vouchers when shelters are full. "Clients and staff both report that they love having a security officer there," he said, adding that the presence helps de-escalate incidents and reduce reliance on police.

He warned that some partner programs are at risk: Jettin said a local partner, Youth Futures, has about $1 million in federal funding that is currently frozen and called that "pretty scary" for local capacity. He also said the total amount of housing-specific program dollars available for Iron County is small: "I think there was a sum total of, like, dollars 40,000 for housing programs for Iron County." He described the city's mitigation grant as unusually flexible and targeted and urged council support for continued legislative approval.

Council members pressed Jettin on program details. He said Code Blue (the regional cold-weather alert) runs through the coming winter and allows temporary capacity increases and motel vouchers when the National Weather Service forecasts sustained low wind-chill temperatures. Jettin also said Care & Share and partners have used coordinated entry to house several households recently and are planning a public municipality-service coordination meeting on Monday, Oct. 27 at 4 p.m. to review how funding is used and identify improvements.

Jettin described early-stage plans for a tiny-home project on roughly 1.5 acres behind the shelter and said some funding may be available for a first phase. He also invited council and the public to tour the shelter and meet staff. "If anybody would love to come down and do a tour of the shelter, I'd be more than happy to take you on a tour," he said.

The council asked for continued updates and emphasized the importance of state-level mitigation funding; Jettin replied that the Utah League of Cities and Towns supports the program and that reauthorization by the Legislature is critical to sustaining services.