Salt Lake City

Housing Stability Division

801-535-7712 | HousingStability@slc.gov

SUCCESS STORIES: CDBG Funding, Advantage Services, and Three Lives Changed

SUCCESS STORIES: CDBG Funding, Advantage Services, and Three Lives Changed

April 4, 2024

With the help of funding from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Advantage Services has been able to empower members of the community who were unsheltered or experiencing homelessness. Three excellent examples of this impact are Scott, Adam, and Jason. Their stories as told by Advantage Services are included below.

Scott had been unsheltered for ten years. He heard about Advantage Services and our supportive employment program. He came in and applied but we had no openings for our regular contracts. However, we were able to get him started with our Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. This CDBG funding we receive is set aside to augment our current homeless employment program called “Provisional Supportive Employment Program” specifically for getting more individuals employed than our current contracts have openings for.

Scott excelled in his initial position on the Clean Team and was promoted to Team Leader and then Supervisor. [At the time of writing] Scott [was] in an upper/middle management position and [was] a full-time benefited employee. Scott [was] in a position to help many others navigate the path to success that he started on and [had] become a vital part of our team.

Adam was a recipient of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) [funding] in 2014. This funding was used to hire more individuals experiencing homelessness than some of our contracts were budgeted for. Adam was very motivated to improve not only his life but those who were around him. Our company believes in “promoting from within” and Adam moved up through the ranks of the company. He later became a full-time benefited supervisor and supervised over half of our homeless programing employees. The impact he had prior to his death was immeasurable. The sheer number of people he helped personally and referred for employment made him a pillar of our company and the community around him. His success… has helped many lives in our community.

Jason was [an addict experiencing homelessness] and living on the streets of Salt Lake when he heard of our company and applied for a job. He started out on our Clean Team program using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding and then was added to our landscaping crew as a team leader. Jason had experience in many fields and became a full-time employee in our maintenance department as well as becoming our vehicle fleet manager. A customer who was so impressed with his work ethics asked…him to go to work with them. We were happy to [empower] him to advance his career with the new company. Jason was already clean and sober at the time but moved on to get married, buy a house and have a family. [At the time of writing] he had [moved] up the ranks of that company and is making six figures with them.

These examples are not anomalies for Advantage Services. They have become the largest employer in the state of Utah to hire individuals who are currently or formerly homeless. As of 2024, 100 of their 160 employees have at some time experienced homelessness. They have witnessed many other success stories of individuals who have used the opportunities that the CDBG funding afforded to gain a foothold in the company and move on to better and more meaningful employment opportunities. In the last 10 years CDBG grant funding has given over 250 individuals a fresh start and an opportunity to change their path.

All client names have been changed. All stories and photos shared on the Housing Stability Division website are shared with permission. If you wish to submit your own success story, or for more information on multimedia release authorizations, you can email housingstabiliy@slc.gov, or call 801-535-7712.


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