Article by Megan Fleming Hytjan for PCCF (June 24, 2024)

Park City Community Foundation’s Women’s Giving Fund is Granting Out $125,000 and Members Can Vote for the Winner Until July 8 

Park City, Utah (Monday, June 24, 2024) – Park City Community Foundation is proud to announce the three finalists for its annual Women’s Giving Fund grant. The 2024 finalists include People’s Health Clinic, Mountain Mediation Center, and Summit Community Gardens + EATS. 

The finalists will be awarded a total of $125,000 at the annual Grant Celebration on July 10, with one organization getting the high-impact grant and the other two receiving smaller gifts. Women’s Giving Fund members are asked to cast their vote for the high-impact grant now through July 8, 2024.  

Since its inception, Park City Community Foundation’s Women’s Giving Fund has worked to benefit the lives of women+ and children in Park City and Summit County. The group includes over 2,100 local women, girls, and those who identify as women. Members meet throughout the year at various gatherings and have collectively granted $383,000 to make a positive difference in the community. The annual grant amount has continued to grow over the Women’s Giving Fund’s ten-year history. This year’s total of $125,000 is the most the group has ever given out, increasing its impact by $25,000 from last year.  

“We are thrilled to have three wonderful nonprofits offering critical support to women+ and children in Summit County,” said Anna Frachou, Women’s Giving Fund Steering Committee Chair. “In the United States, the Women & Girls Index has shown that only 2% of charitable giving goes to organizations focused on women and girls. We know the generative and positive benefits of uplifting women, and we are grateful for the opportunity to amplify the impact of these great organizations with the collective funds from many passionate local women+.” 

The 2024 grant finalists have submitted proposals that will positively impact woman and children. If selected for the high-impact grant, each of the finalists has proposed a project: 

• People’s Health Clinic will provide urgent reproductive health needs for uninsured community members and improve health outcomes for vulnerable women and children through family planning education, contraception access, prenatal care, and postpartum support. 

• Mountain Mediation Center will provide low-income families with services to navigate housing stability and family conflicts. This will happen through landlord/tenant and domestic mediation programs that prevent eviction and homelessness and provide a path forward for women facing divorce. 

• Summit Community Gardens + EATS will instill lifelong healthy eating habits and provide 1-2 servings of fruits and vegetables to more than 2,000 local school-aged children through hands-on cooking, nutrition, and gardening programs. 

Members can vote and learn about each of the finalist’s grant proposals at https://parkcitycf.org/votewgf/. Voting will close on July 8, and the high-impact grantee will be announced at the annual grant celebration on July 10 at Red Pine Lodge at The Canyons. Park City Community Foundation thanks Park City Mountain supported though Vail Resorts EpicPromise for sponsoring the event. 

Additionally, the three finalists will be at the monthly Women’s Giving Fund coffee meet-up to answer questions on Thursday, June 27, 9:30am at Lucky Ones in the Park City Library.  

Women’s Giving Fund is an initiative of Park City Community Foundation that includes nearly 2,200 members who make high-impact grants to help local women and children in need. Women become members for life by making a one-time $1,000 contribution to the fund, which is endowed by the Community Foundation and provides grants to local nonprofits from its earnings in perpetuity. Learn more about Park City Community Foundation’s Women’s Giving Fund or become a member at https://parkcitycf.org/womensgivingfund 

About Park City Community Foundation – The Community Foundation plays a vital role in solving the most challenging problems in Park City. We care for and invest in our people, place, and culture by bringing together local nonprofits, donors, and community leaders to contribute financial resources and innovative ideas to benefit all the people of Park City—now and in the future. As the home of Live PC Give PC, Women’s Giving Fund, Youth United, Zero Food Waste, and other important initiatives, the Community Foundation has brought millions of dollars to the greater Park City community and Summit County. Learn more about donating, volunteering, fundraising and getting involved at parkcitycf.org. 

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Click here to read this article on the PCCF website

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One couple found truckload of trash, thousands of dollars in damage and no easy fix.

Article by Julie Jag for The Salt Lake Tribune (May 27, 2024)

Matt Farinelli was sitting on a chairlift in early April, enjoying some small talk and spring sunshine, when he realized something was wrong at the townhouse he was renting out.

The ski instructor next to him had mentioned that nearly all of the foreign seasonal workers — college students from places like Argentina and Australia who form the brunt of the workforce for Park City’s hotels, restaurants and ski areas each winter — had already gone home. It was April 1, and though the seasonal workers in Farinelli’s place were on the lease through April 15, he knew he hadn’t heard from them in far too long.

He reached out to confirm the exit walk-through he’d scheduled with his tenants for the next day. They replied that they’d been called out of the country for a “family emergency” — all five of the students on the lease — and had left the keys on the counter.

“‘That’s not great,’” Farinelli recalled thinking. “And that was Monday night. So I went the next morning and did a quick walkthrough and was, quite frankly, so pissed off, I just had to leave.”

A rotting pineapple, abandoned clothes, cigarette smoke and truckloads of trash contributed to the close to $20,000 hit Farinelli estimates he took after deciding last November to try to be part of the solution to Park City’s seasonal worker housing shortage.

The students may have abandoned his townhouse. But in the aftermath, Farinelli felt even more forsaken by the police and the local resorts and businesses that heavily rely on J-1 workers each winter. They call on area residents to house the students. Yet he said when he asked for their help, they shut him out. Farinelli won’t be renting to J-1s again anytime soon as a result, he said, and he’s not alone. Other homeowners have begun wondering if renting to foreign students is really worth the trouble. If they decide it’s not, where will all the workers live?

“It just feels like this thing no one wants to touch,” Farinelli said.

“There’s this very delicate balance of workforce housing in Park City,” he added, “and no one really wants to mess with it. It certainly seems like the burden falls on the private citizens at this point. And no one wants to back them up.”

Adding housing to the community

It felt like the right thing to do.

Farinelli and his wife have lived in Summit County for nearly 20 years. In that time, they’d borne witness to many of the issues that accompanied Park City’s rapid-fire growth into a well-known ski town. One of which is its reliance on J-1 workers.

Between high unemployment rates and more people able to work from home, seasonal workers have become increasingly difficult to come by, especially since the pandemic. And many Americans who prefer seasonal work are now pushing for higher wages and health benefits. As a result, resort towns like Park City have become increasingly dependent upon foreign students enrolled in the Summer Work Travel Program to provide ski resorts, hotels, restaurants, bars and ski shops a consistent source of labor.

Better known as J-1s for the name of their visa, the typically 18- to 23-year-olds who come to Park City usually hail from South and Central American countries. They sign $20/hour contracts to work no less than 30-hours a week, often starting Dec. 1 and ending March 31. Many also pick up second jobs as bartenders or bussers.

(Matt Farinelli) A bowl of cereal and an empty beer can were left on an ottoman in a Kimball Junction townhome that was rented to five seasonal workers from November 2023 to April 2024. The owner, Matt Farinelli, said he got no help from the workers’ employers nor the police after they left the country prior to the exit walkthrough. He estimates they caused close to $20,000 in damage to the home.

It’s a win-win program, except for one thing. Finding a place to live in Park City is close to impossible. Only about 12% of workers live in the city, according to data from the Kem C. Gardner Institute, so there’s not much room for a transient student making $1,200 a month. This season, though, five students — though Farinelli now believes that number exploded to at least a dozen — found shelter in Farinelli’s three-bedroom Kimball Junction townhouse.

“We’re well aware of how much the town needs this labor,” Farinelli said. “Like, ‘Let’s be the good people and we’ll try it and hopefully it works out.’ That was kind of our reasoning. And now we’re like, ‘Man, that risk is definitely not paying off.’”

Finding tenants

At least 100 J-1s responded to their ad, Farinelli estimates. The group they selected knew someone in town who could look at the home in person. The Farinellis had rented the place out multiple times to longer-term tenants, and none of their initial interactions gave them pause. In fact, they offered a reduced rent since they required a six-month lease, which is longer than the tenants expected to stay. They held a month’s rent for a security deposit. Given the age of the tenants, they expected some wear and tear, but nothing like what Farinelli saw when he stepped into the townhouse the day after he learned they had all left the country.

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Trash. In a 10-minute video Farinelli took of his initial walkthrough, he uttered some variation of the word “trash” at least 30 times. A bowl of cereal drenched in milk sat on a coffee table next to an empty beer can. Banisters bore long scars as if someone had slid down them on cafeteria trays. Holes had been punched into doors. Jackets, shirts, even skis had been abandoned on beds and in closets, along with bags and tags. Farinelli said it took three trips for a junk service to haul it all away.

Before the cleanup began, Farinelli called the sheriff. He knew officers couldn’t do much to help him since his tenants had left the country. Still, he hoped to get the damage on record in a police report. Maybe, he thought, a warrant could be issued so if they ever returned to the United States, they couldn’t do the same to someone else.

Instead, he said he couldn’t even get a case number.

(Matt Farinelli) A collection of empty alcohol bottles occupies a shelf in a Kimball Junction townhome that was rented to five seasonal workers from November 2023 to April 2024. The owner, Matt Farinelli, said he got no help from the workers’ employers nor the police after they left the country prior to the exit walkthrough. He estimates they caused close to $20,000 in damage to the home.

“It was pretty frustrating,” Farinelli said. “They legitimately just were like, ‘We’re not going to come talk to you.’”

Sgt. Felicia Sotelo, a spokesperson for the Summit County Sheriff, said someone from the agency had taken Farinelli’s call and a case number had been issued. She said more urgent matters can keep a deputy from making a site visit. However, she also expressed surprise that Farinelli had been told he had no case.

“If someone is renting and property is damaged, we can absolutely look into it,” she said. “Sometimes it’s a criminal matter and sometimes it’s a civil matter.”

Farinelli said he felt similarly dismissed when he asked one of his tenants’ employers for assistance. He said through the course of conversation early in the rental period, some of the tenants said they worked at Park City Mountain. Yet when he contacted Park City Mountain seeking a permanent address or, ideally in his mind, the garnishment of their wages until they could resolve the dispute, he said he got no response.

In a statement emailed to The Tribune, Park City Mountain communications director Sara Huey emphasized ways in which the resort is participating in “community solutions” for the seasonal worker housing deficit. She did not address whether employers have an obligation to intervene in conflicts between landlords and seasonal workers.

“We are committed,” she wrote, “to helping to address affordable housing in our community — including through our master lease for employee housing at Slopeside Village, our commitment of $250,000 to Mountainlands Community Housing Trust toward the Holiday Village and Parkside Apartments affordable housing redevelopment, and other important community solutions.”

Technically, employers are not responsible for helping J-1 workers find housing. That burden falls on the student’s sponsor. Sponsors are Department of State-approved agencies that receive money both from the students and employers to match the two, provide visas and oversee the cultural and logistical aspects of a student’s stay.

They tend to take a very hands-off approach, those familiar with the process say. Rather than directly connect students with landlords, they more often refer them to sites like Zillow and Trulia. Check-ins are done via monthly email surveys. Still, few students speak up about inadequate housing, advocates say, for fear of having to return home early.

For this reason, Megan McKenna, a housing advocate for the nonprofit Mountainlands Community Housing Trust, said workers are more likely to be taken advantage of than landlords.

(Matt Farinelli) A drawer is torn off a vanity in a Kimball Junction townhome that was rented to five seasonal workers from November 2023 to April 2024. The owner, Matt Farinelli, said he got no help from the workers’ employers nor the police after they left the country prior to the exit walkthrough. He estimates they caused close to $20,000 in damage to the home.

“It’s really not very common that we hear about situations like this,” she said of Farinelli’s predicament. “It’s often the other way around, that we hear about seasonal workers being taken advantage of or misled by a landlord or online scams, which seem to be getting more common.”

If property owners like Farinelli get burned while trying to treat J-1s fairly, and more rooms are taken off the market, that more broadly opens up the market to bad actors. One example of that was exposed last year when The Tribune reported on a group of 12 seasonal workers who, with the landlord’s apparent permission, were living in a one-bedroom apartment and paying $12,000 a month in rent. Conversely, those bad actors, McKenna said, are probably why Farinelli found mail, IDs and a sleeping chart indicating at least 12 people had called his townhouse home over the winter.

“The housing situation, it’s really tough. And so I imagine there were a lot of tenants in the home and that’s likely what led to the damage,” she said. “And I think it just is more evidence of the housing crisis that we’re in and that people are finding themselves in less than ideal living situations. And that goes for the landlord and the tenant.”

Mountainlands and other organizations have set up resources to help J-1 workers find housing and navigate life in Park City. One of the most prominent ones is the International Student Housing Task Force. Originally organized by the Christian Center of Park City in 2019, it encourages residents to open their homes to foreign students.

Mountainlands also created the Workforce Employer Rental Incentive Program (aka, WE RIP), which provides extra motivation for locals to rent out spare rooms or basements. Currently, Deer Valley Resort is the only business to participate in the program. Anyone who rents a room to a Deer Valley employee for the season can receive a season pass or 10 one-day passes. However, as an added benefit, program participants know they can reach out to Mountainlands if tenant issues arise, McKenna said. If Mountainlands can’t resolve it, she said, they’ll enlist the services of the Mountain Mediation Center.

McKenna pointed out that landlords tend to have more leverage than tenants in Utah. She said anyone looking to rent to seasonal workers can find resources and sample leases at a local Housing Resource Center or library. If issues do arise, she encourages them to also seek guidance through Mountainlands or the Mountain Mediation Center. If sponsors aren’t responding, McKenna suggested reporting the issue to the state department.

She cringes at the idea of losing more housing for seasonal workers.

“The effect of fewer local landlords renting to seasonal workers would be devastating to seasonal workers and the economy,” she wrote in an email. “It would mean fewer jobs filled and more commuters. It’s already such a low number [who rent to J-1s], which is why we’re trying to incentivize more to participate in the WE RIP program and provide more preventative education/ resources to landlords, tenants, employers, and sponsors.”

For Farinelli, the issue wasn’t so much mediation as just re-establishing communication once his tenants left the country. He said he regrets not taking down a list of their sponsors as well as collecting their permanent addresses. Those were his rookie mistakes.

Yet even some longtime J-1 landlords and advocates have grown weary of rolling the dice on seasonal renters.

Hosting young people and making connections

Becky Yih, a founder of the International Student Housing Task Force, is one of them. She has rented the basement apartment and, more recently, the guest room in her Kimball Junction townhouse to seasonal workers for more than a decade. She’s made some connections she treasures in that time. Still, her last batch of tenants — three young women — tested her mettle. They were slovenly, she said, and consistently broke house rules.

“I have just been such a proponent for so long. But after having that bad experience myself, I don’t feel like I would encourage anyone to do it,” she said. “I mean, I don’t want to discourage anyone from doing it. But I don’t want to feel like I talked somebody into it and then what if they had a bad experience?”

Still, Yih doesn’t believe the students are the problem.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Becky Yih walks through her basement that she has rented to foreign seasonal workers, known as J1s, in her home in Park City on Friday, May 10, 2024. Yih and her husband have rented out their basement for more than a decade but are now considering calling it quits after difficulties with recent tenants.

Through her advocacy work, she has pushed for the city and county to look at how other resort towns are handling the situation and adopt some of their policies. Changes to fire codes and other laws could dissuade bad actors — including those woven into the system, such as sponsors and employers. She also believes more support is needed for community members who want to help, like Farinelli.

So far, she said, she hasn’t found an audience.

“I think other places have tried to be more conscientious about it,” she said. “And I just feel like there’s no will to do that. I mean, we’re still just getting by.”

A happy ending

In the end, it was the students’ sponsors who came through for Farinelli.

He had to use all his contacts to track down which sponsors usually worked with Vail Resorts, since he said Park City Mountain’s people stopped returning his emails. Once he narrowed it down to three, he sent them messages explaining the situation and the names of his tenants.

One responded and offered to help. Within a half day, Farinelli said, one of the students reached out.

“All of a sudden, they went from radio silent to all of them willing to pay us last month’s rent,” Farinelli said. “That’s how they got back. in touch with us. So we’re fairly certain, though I can’t say for sure, that the company reached out to them and was like, ‘Hey, if you ever want to go back to America, I strongly suggest you re-engage.’”

After a few weeks of negotiations, Farinelli said he was able to recoup most of what the episode cost him. Yet the damage had already been done. He and his wife swore they wouldn’t go through that again and have since sold the townhouse.

“Our honest advice to people if they came to us now and said, ‘Well, would you rent to a group of J-1s?’” he said. “I’d be like, ‘No, absolutely not.’”

Yih hasn’t jumped off that cliff yet. She is, however, peering into the precipice.

“I think about it a lot. It’s just been such a part of our lives,” she said. “Could I do this again or have I just reached my tipping point?”

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Click here to read this article on the Trib’s website

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By Maritza Roño Refuerzo, Neighbors of Park City for Town Lift (February 29, 2024)

To a first-time homebuyer or renter, this may sound a bit intimidating. I mean, what could possibly restrict a deed? And are we talking “deed” as in an intentional, conscious act (usually one that’s good—or, in this case, maybe not?), or simply a legally binding document?

“Inclusionary” and “affordable” are much friendlier and more inviting terms—yet, not surprisingly, for most people, they evoke prejudice, fear, and misconception. Potential affordable housing homeowners or tenants might ask themselves, “Do I need to be homeless to qualify?” Or, “How do I go about navigating this ‘intimidating’ process?”

Angelica Espinoza, housing navigator at the Housing Resource Center (HRC)—a branch of Mountainlands, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, wants everyone in Summit and Wasatch Counties to know about the HRC’s services. “We help people get applications to apartment complexes and property managers. We also assist first-time homebuyers through each step of this complicated process.”

Located in Park City’s Prospector Square between Alpine Adventurers Academy and Lectura Lounge is Mountainlands Community Housing Trust, where the HRC is based.

Back in college, I had accompanied a classmate of mine to a volunteer stint for Habitat for Humanity, where we were assigned to be part of a construction crew that, literally, helped build someone else’s (affordable) home—so, naturally, I wondered if Mountainlands might be a Habitat-type operation.

“Mountainlands is a nonprofit, but, unlike Habitat for Humanity, we aren’t nationwide. We’re known as a builder of affordable housing,” emphasizes Angelica. According to Housinghelp.org, the HRC’s website, Mountainlands has constructed and sold almost 350 homes to moderate-income households and built or restored more than 300 affordable apartment units in Summit and Wasatch Counties for the past thirty years.

Affordable housing in Park City?

Angelica laughs at my question. “Have you heard of the term ‘NIMBY’? ‘Not in My Backyard.’ There are people who support affordable housing, but not necessarily in their city.”

In Park City—where workers actually outnumber its residents—Mountainlands, since the 1980s, has built affordable housing communities. “HOPA [Holiday Village and Parkside Apartments], one of our projects, was just approved in June by the Planning Commission,” boasts Angelica.

Isn’t HOPA those residences right next to Park City High School? Centrally located and easily accessible by public transit?

“There are 122 units being prepared for complete redevelopment,” Angelica adds, laughing again at my affordable housing naïveté. “We have funding to rebuild 115 existing units and to add even more units to the entire site.”

Angelica and her colleagues work from 9-6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, always ready to speak with walk-in clients. When I returned to the HRC two days later, on a Thursday, I opened the door to what looked like a mini-board meeting. “We’re a staff of only three,” says Angelica, “So, aside from our job duties, we’re handling communications and marketing on social media.”

Among this mini-but-mighty staff is Megan McKenna, who serves as the HRC’s Housing Advocate. “Mountainlands never had dedicated positions to housing navigation and advocacy work. Angelica and I were hired last year to help educate the community, to tell everyone who we are,” Megan explains. “We present to different organizations and employee groups, and we partner with Park City Community Foundation, Mountain Mediation Center, and Park City Municipal, working together to organize community events that provide information about renting and ownership.”

“Our pitching point to Summit and Wasatch Counties goes back to NIMBY,” Angelica adds. “We want to keep our local workforce here, as in local. Imagine, there are 9,000 cars driving into Summit County every day, so affordable housing also helps with traffic!”

The Housing Resource Center is on a mission to keep the local workforce in Summit County. Photo: Housing Resource Center.

According to Angelica, residences like Carriage House devote 78 percent of their lodging to Airbnb guests. However, there’s been a recent trend with current owners steering away from nightly and weekly offerings and instead renting to local workers to create a stronger and more diverse community.

Angelica and Megan are determined to continue their advocacy and education to help house our community. “Studio Crossings is another project in the works, where I believe 200 of its 300 units will be devoted to affordable housing,” says Angelica, “including families with not just lower-than-median income but also seniors. Did you know there’s no senior housing in Park City?”

Aren’t seniors a vital part of our community—to any community?

“Aside from housing for seniors, we don’t even have emergency housing or homeless shelters,” Angelica says. “In Utah, a code was passed recently, requiring counties to have a warming center if temperatures drop below 10 degrees.”

Nonetheless, Angelica and Megan are hopeful. Angelica believes that the community as a whole—including the NIMBYs, the Housing Authority, and the Housing and Stability Division—is starting to get it. New to Mountainlands are services for Wasatch County, in addition to Summit County. “The Housing Authority wants Park City to restrict at least 20 percent of its residential development to affordable housing. Also, there’s a lot of affordable housing in Wasatch, but no one knows about it. We want more people to come talk to us!”

Angelica and Megan would be more than happy to explain the meaning of “deed restricted” and other housing lingo to those who are “intimidated” by the “inclusionary and affordable” housing process. “We love what we do,” Angelica beams. “We’re committed to our mission.”

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Click here to read this article on the Town Lift website

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Article by the Park City Chamber of Commerce for Town Lift (December 15, 2023)

PARK CITY, Utah – The Park City Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau (PCCVB) has compiled a Seasonal Workforce Resource Guide for seasonal workers to make the transition to Park City easier. In the wintertime, Park City businesses rely on the incoming help from students and exchange workers with J-1 visas.

Many exchange workers come from Argentina, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, and Costa Rica. The bureau has been collecting information on housing, transportation, mental health services, Spanish-speaking support, and more.

Last year, the PCCVB launched this initiative with its first edition of the Seasonal Workforce Resource Guide.

“These dedicated workers bring a unique energy and resilience, ensuring our businesses thrive and our community flourishes,” said Jennifer Wesselhoff, President & CEO of the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau. “At the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau, we recognize the invaluable role of seasonal workers in fostering a dynamic, interconnected, and thriving mountain community. It is our responsibility to reciprocate their dedication by providing essential resources, support systems, and opportunities for growth, ensuring they feel valued and empowered as integral contributors to our shared success.”

The new guide includes videos produced by the Mountain Mediation Center that provide information on renting to help prevent conflicts and what to do if a conflict does arise. The PCCVB has a partnership with Mountainlands Housing Community Trust and Rossignol to try to provide more affordable housing for seasonal workers.

“Many seasonal workers have never been to Park City and can feel overwhelmed with each step in their moving process. From riding the bus to renting an apartment, these challenges can be alleviated with the assistance of educational resources,” said Gretchen Lee, Executive Director at Mountain Mediation Center. “The Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau and Mountain Mediation Center ensure that the workers have access to these resources to make their stay in Park City comfortable and memorable.”

The full list of seasonal worker resources includes:

• Housing Resources

• Spanish Speaking Resources

• Transportation

• Healthcare & Mental Health

• Resources & Services

• Law Enforcement & Emergency Services

• Things to Do

• Employment Resources

The Park City Chamber and Visitors Bureau will continue to update the page throughout the winter season as new resources become available. Click here to view the current guide. For additional information about the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau, visit parkcitychamber.com.

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Click here to read this article on the Town Lift website

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Article by Aimee L. Cook for Town Lift (August 31, 2023)

PARK CITY, Utah — The Annual Happiest Hour reception hosted by the Promontory Foundation took place on August 30, where local nonprofits were honored with a total of over $370K in awards.

Since its establishment in 2006, the Promontory Foundation has allocated over $2.1 million to local non-profits, meeting their matching 2 to 1 requirements. This has resulted in an impressive impact of more than $6.65 million.

“The foundation is now in its 17th year, and every year around the fourth of July, we have a fundraising event,” said Kelli Brown, general manager for Promontory. “The purpose of the event is to raise money for local nonprofits that serve residents in the Summit County area in social services, arts, and culture. There are a lot of great causes out there, but we have narrowed our focus to those primary sectors. We had 47 applications this year, which was a new record.”

The Promontory Foundation’s mission is to address the Park City Community’s unmet needs, specifically in the Arts, Culture, and Social Services. By providing matching funds for worthwhile programs that tackle these areas, the foundation strives to create opportunities for individuals to contribute in deeply personal and collaborative ways.

The recipients of the evening were:

• Ballet West– grant money will support the upcoming community performances at the Park City Eccles Center.
• Christian Center of Park City (CCPC)– grant money will go towards supporting their food pantries, which served nearly 15,000 households last year.
• Utah Museum of Contemporary Arts (UMOCA)– grant money will be used to support education and outreach through the UMOCA art truck for students in Summit County.
• Egyptian Theatre Company– grant money will be used to continue offering world-class acts on their stage and dynamic programming within their youth theatre.
• Joseph James Morelli Foundation– grant money will be used to support local Park City and Utah students. by providing mentoring and scholarship opportunities.
• Kimball Arts Center– grant money will go towards supporting their educational arts and school outreach programs.
• Children Justice Center– grant money used will go to support the child abuse investigation process.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters– grant money will go to recurring and screening volunteer mentors.
• KCPW– grant money will support the station and launch kcpw.org in Spanish.
• Live Like Sam– grant money will go to support their Thrive Program that supports Summit County students.
• Mountain Lands Community Housing– grant money will go towards supporting the housing resource assistance program for Summit County residents.
• Mountain Mediation– grant money will go to support their housing security and eviction program for low-income residents of Summit and Wasatch Counties.
• Literacy Project
• Mountain Town Music– grant money will go to support free public performances in Summit County.
• Mountain Trails Foundation– grant money will secure and provide a free public Nordic ski track at Willow Creek Park.
• National Ability Center
• Lucky Ones Coffee– grant money will go towards expanding their community program that focuses on supporting adults with disabilities in Summit County.
• Park City Education Foundation
• Park City Film– grant money will go to continuing the popcorn bar sponsored by the Promontory Foundation, with all revenue going back into their free community programs.
• Park City Institute– grant money will go towards supporting their student outreach programs.
• Park City Historical Society– grant money will be used to foster school programs and field trips to the Park City Museum.
• PC Tots– grant money will go to provide scholarships to low-income families in Summit County.
• Peace House– grant money will be used to support their clinical therapy program.
• People’s Health Clinic–  grant money will be used to support all of their ongoing efforts.
• Playing for Life– grant money will go towards supporting the free breast screening and mammogram program for residents who have been diagnosed with needing the life-saving test and do not have health insurance or funds to cover costs.
• Recycle Utah– grant money will be used to support the maintenance and upkeep of the glass recycling program.
• Swaner Nature Preserve– grant money will go towards engaging environmental education opportunities to the Park City community.
• Summit County Clubhouse– grant money will go to providing services for free for adults living with mental illness.
• Youth Sports Alliance– grant money will go to support the youth after-school program for the students in Summit County.
• Young Life– grant money will go to support the Young Life Foundation in Summit County.

The Promontory Promise Grant is the only $50,000 award given; it was awarded to Habitat for Humanity.

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Click here to read the article on the Town Lift website

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Article by Michele Roepke for Town Lift (January 6, 2023)

PARK CITY, Utah — The seasonal worker population is in town, in force, and the Christian Center of Park City (CCPC) is on a mission to feed them all a free, hot meal every Tuesday night.

Besides taking an exciting moment to watch their Argentinian countrymen compete in the FIFA World Cup, J1 employees from Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, and Costa Rica (a few of whom are housing at CCPC Executive Director Rob Harter’s house) are staffing the resorts in invaluable ways.

As one of the oldest services the nonprofit CCPC has offered for decades, Free Community Tuesday Night Dinners is starting back up this winter. The schedule is as follows: January 10, 17, 24, 31, February 7, 14, 21, and 28.

Other local nonprofits like Mountain Mediation come in to discuss with the diners, in Spanish, the potential perils and pitfalls regarding renters’ rights. The Park City Transit Dept. shares tips and tricks to get everybody to work on time and home afterward.

Matt Melville, Programs Director, told TownLift, “There are a whole lot of awesome seasonal workers back in town after a few COVID seasons, and we’re thrilled to invite them all to these weekly meals. It’s the best opportunity for local groups to feed and then to simply sit down and share a meal, some laughter, and some stories from home over a home-cooked meal that these friends will often get in Park City.”

Individual families, nonprofits, restaurant-related groups, community service organizations like Rotarians, and religious groups have already shown interest in providing home-cooked or otherwise prepared meals for 50-150 people.

The dinners are located upstairs in the community gathering space at the CCPC.

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Click here to read this article on the Town Lift website

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Article by Leslie Thatcher for KPCW (February 8, 2022)

For the last 20 years, the Mountain Mediation Center has provided mediation services to help resolve issues in state and small claims court. About four years ago, the center began offering community mediation programs that range from neighborhood disputes and landlord/tenant issues to divorce. The Mediation Center is located in the Christian Center and appointments are required to meet in person and through Zoom.

On Tuesday, the center begins its latest series of community conversations. The center’s Executive Director Gretchen Lee says this bilingual conversation will be held via Zoom starting at 6:30 pm.

“And particularly, throughout the pandemic, we have been doing a lot of landlord tenant work, and so we’re seeing it firsthand,” Lee said. “And so anyway, we thought we’d kick off our 2022 conversation with let’s talk about renting and the idea is to get landlords, management, tenants just people members of the community, just to get a wide variety of people talking about renting and about rental experiences from both sides.”

While it’s challenging to have bilingual conversations, Lee says the evening will include both Spanish and English.

“We start out as a big group on Zoom and then break down depending upon how many people will be there we break down into groups of about six to seven people and there will be an English speaker and a Spanish speaker in each group and we mix the groups up so it’s not English in one group and Spanish and another group — that they’re all interspersed together so they can have a more meaningful conversation.”

The conversations she says are held in a safe space. They are not recorded and are confidential.

Utah laws, she adds, favor landlords and those who read and speak English. While the center has helped with work on dispute resolution, once an eviction notice has been filed, it’s hard to recover.

“There’s nothing that really protects them under state law,” Lee explained. “And so, then their best move is that they move forward with state law, so they don’t get that eviction filing. We’ve been very successful with helping people along that process but in keeping in terms of keeping them in their homes, if the landlord has done everything under state law that they’re required to do, and they want them out, there’s really not much that can be done.”

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Click here to read/listen to this article on the KPCW website

The post MMC Hosts Bilingual Conversation for Renters appeared first on Mountain Mediation Center.

Hosted by Ciriac Alvarez Valle of Voices for Utah Children, with guests Marcus Dugan – Utah Legal Services & Gretchen Lee – Mountain Mediation Center.

(October 15, 2020)

The post What is Happening with Housing? appeared first on Mountain Mediation Center.

Article by Leslie Thatcher for KPCW (August 13, 2020)

The Mountain Mediation Center, a local conflict resolution nonprofit, has hired a new outreach coordinator for the area’s Spanish-speaking community and is preparing for the possibility of mass evictions after the expiration of federal and state moratoriums on the issue.

The Mountain Mediation Center for Summit and Wasatch counties operates with just four part-time staffers and several volunteers. Its mission is to serve the residents of the Wasatch Back by helping prevent and resolve conflict outside of a courtroom.

Its work came to a halt when the coronavirus pandemic hit in March. But executive director Gretchen Lee says when small claims courts started to see a backlog of cases, the center restarted its work in mid-May with free mediation sessions via Zoom on Wednesdays.

Lee said that the number of requests for family mediation services started rising about a month ago.

A shortfall of the center has been in difficulty helping the community’s Spanish speakers, so the center recently hired Lirio Sanchez – Park City native just received her accounting degree from the University of Utah – to work about 15 to 20 hours a week.

“My community and especially helping my Latino community has always been really important so I was really excited about this position,” Sanchez said. “And as I got to learn more about Mountain Mediation and the services that they provide I felt like this was something that could be very beneficial for the Spanish-speaking community.”

On Aug. 22, the center is hosting an online discussion with the Spanish speaking community on reimagining the justice system and restorative justice. Sanchez says they hope to bring more awareness to the Latinx community and answer questions that viewers may have. The event will be held live from 10:30 a.m. to noon on the Mountain Mediation Center’s Facebook page.

Two panelists will participate including a policy analyst for Voices for Utah and a counselor at East High School in Salt Lake City.

Lee says the Park City community has done an incredible job helping people in need of rent assistance. And so far, she says they are not yet seeing many evictions filed at the 3rd District Courthouse.

The state’s moratorium on evictions expired in May and the federal eviction moratorium expired at the end of July. But Lee says landlords have to wait 30 days before they can file an eviction – so Lee expects to see more by the end of the month and is preparing for it.

“So we don’t know really what’s going to happen, but in the meantime we’ve been preparing our – we’ve got a small group of small claims court mediators who are interested in landlord-tenant mediation and some of them have real estate backgrounds and so we as an organization have started some roundtables with them,” she said. “You know, just to make sure that they are up and running if and when we’re called upon at the court to need to help mediate those cases.”

The mediation center also offers its services to smaller landlords.

“We can help landlords, particularly smaller landlords, that deal with tenants more on a one-on- one basis, help renegotiate leases with their tenants so you know they’re workable leases on both sides recognizing that the landlords have bills to pay and perhaps the tenants aren’t in any position to pay their full leases,” Lee said, pointing potential landlords and tenants in need of service to the organization’s website. “And then if they have problems from there, we have got mediators ready to go and thanks to some funding from our other community organizations, we are able to do this at no charge.”

A second bilingual conversation on reimagining justice, she says, will be held in September.

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Click here to read/listen to the article on the KPCW website

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Article by Annie Knox for the Deseret News (August 2, 2020)

SALT LAKE CITY — Jasmine Stanley checks her bank account several times a day to see if an unexpected payment has shown up. Any extra cash will help.

She and her boyfriend are short on August rent after they got the coronavirus last week and couldn’t work.

If the Midvale couple had fallen sick earlier, moratoriums on pandemic-related evictions would have bought them more time to catch up. But a statewide freeze ended in May, and protection for Stanley and other renters in buildings with federally backed mortgages ran out last week.

“It’s pretty overwhelming. It causes a lot of anxiety,” said Stanley, 22, who estimates she will fall hundreds of dollars short of her roughly $900 rent. “We had one of my friends take our coins to Coinstar to see how much money we could get. She got about $50, so that was cool, but still not enough.”

After an initial dip in evictions in recent months, tenant advocates expect the number to swell. Many are ramping up services in English and Spanish to handle the anticipated surge, although a rental owner industry group says the fears are overblown.

The evictions threaten to amplify a longtime trend. Most Utahns who face eviction lawsuits — 95% as of last year — have no legal representation, while the vast majority of property owners — 91% — are equipped with attorneys, show Utah courts system data on the 6,300 cases adjudicated last year.

Unemployment benefits and an additional $600 a week in federal relief have helped other Utahns weather the pandemic, but the extra payments have now ceased. As of June, 85,700 in the state were out of work, according to the Department of Workforce Services.

And while many have found jobs as the state has gradually reopened, rising numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases make for an uncertain economy.

Stanley said her boyfriend, Vaitupu Collins, developed a fever and body aches after an infected co-worker at his manufacturing job came to work with symptoms. Soon Stanley struggled to breathe even while lying on the couch and could not muster the energy to work from home for her call center job. Within a few days, Stanley began to feel better, but Collins was too drained to speak with a reporter. Both tested positive for the virus.

The state has set aside $20 million and the US. government $4 million in rent help for Utahns like Stanley, although restrictions apply.

Stanley learned she may not qualify for a grant because Collins, staying with her to avoid infecting eight family members he usually lives with, is not on her lease. She got in touch with a property agent at her building, who said she would qualify for a break only if within $99 of the full payment.

She doesn’t plan to seek help from her family. Her father, a construction worker who remodels hotels, was laid off in July.

“I think it’s just important for people to see that just because the state isn’t shut down anymore doesn’t mean that people aren’t struggling,” Stanley said.

Marty Blaustein, an attorney with Utah Legal Services, agreed.

“This is not going to be pretty,” said Blaustein, whose firm is hiring three new advocates to work on eviction and debt collection cases.

The main industry group for Utah rental property owners sees it differently.

Paul Smith, the executive director of the Utah Apartment Association, noted June’s number of eviction court cases filed statewide — 332 — is down by about half. It did not rebound to normal levels after Utah Gov. Gary Herbert’s six-week hold on evictions lifted in May, a dip he attributes to landlords willing to work with tenants, government assistance, and financial contributions from churches, family members and charities.

Smith estimates that 30,000 to 50,000 apartments — about 10-16% of the state stock — have federally backed loans.

“The reality is it’s not a crisis,” he said. “So far, we’re doing just fine.”

Many of the state’s roughly 100,000 rental owners are senior citizens who rely on the income for retirement or to help support their families, Smith said.

As of late last week, no flood of calls had hit Park City’s Mountain Mediation Center. But a handful of mediators were already training in the nitty-gritty of state housing law, in part so they can inform renters of their rights, said executive director Gretchen Lee.

“In my mind, education is such a key component for tenants since the laws are not stacked in their favor,” Lee said.

Jeffrey Daybell, the executive director of the new nonprofit People’s Legal Aid, predicts several waves of evictions in coming months. His organization is Utah’s first to focus solely on representing tenants throughout the state, supplementing his job helping low-income clients at the Utah State Bar.

Daybell said landlords have largely allowed Utahns to defer rent and stay in their homes, “but if tenants haven’t returned to work in a way that allows them to make those payments in the future, we have essentially postponed a very large debt.”

Some landlords are seeking to oust those who can’t pay for other reasons.

One of Daybell’s clients recently fought and won a nonpayment eviction case after pointing out the home had a federally backed loan. The next day, the landlord served the man an eviction notice for nuisance, which is not blocked by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The landlord alleged he was talking, laughing and playing music too loud, in addition to leaving on porch and kitchen lights.

It’s not clear how many laid-off, furloughed or reduced-hour renters are facing similar nuisance claims but simply leave instead of trying to disprove them, Daybell said.

“I’m nervous that it’s happening outside of court and we don’t have an ability to catch it,” he said.

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Click here to read this article on the Deseret News website

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