In Utah, chronic homelessness could soon be a thing of the past

Over the last 10 years, the number of chronically homeless people in Utah has dropped dramatically — down from 1,932 in 2005 to just 178 in 2015. The decline started once the state decided to try something new: Giving homes to the homeless.

"We call it housing first, employment second," Lloyd Pendleton, director of Utah's Homeless Task Force, told NBC News. "It's a philosophical shift in how we go about it. You put them in housing first ... and then help them begin to deal with the issues that caused them to be homeless." The chronically homeless — defined as a person who lived on the streets for more than a year, or four times in three years, with a debilitating condition — make up 10 percent of the state's homeless population, but use more than 50 percent of its resources.

On average, the state was spending $19,208 every year for one person, until Pendleton discovered it cost only about $7,800 to set a person up in a home with a case worker. "It's more humane, and it's cheaper," he said. "I call them 'homeless citizens.' They're part of our citizenry. They're not them and us. It's 'we.'" Participants in the program say as soon as they received the keys to their house, their lives turned around and they were able to hold down jobs. "It was a blessing," veteran Don Williams, who had slept under a bush for 10 years, told NBC News. "A real blessing."

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