Shelters across the Wasatch Front are well above capacity at this time of the year and - with cold temperatures returning - homeless advocates say they fear they may have to turn families away come winter.

"It is possible," said Lloyd Pendleton, Utah Homeless Task Force director. At the Road Home, Salt Lake City's largest shelter, "there are already families sleeping in the board rooms and halls in the evenings," he said.

Since July 1, The Road Home has set up cots in the shelter's lobby every night to meet the demand. The overflow is providing shelter to the 14 to 18 families, about 70 people on average, who need a place to sleep every night, which is in addition to the 31 families already living in family shelter rooms.

Matthew Minkevitch, executive director of The Road Home, said the shelter is bracing for a busy winter and making preparations to accommodate even more families once the cold weather arrives.

"We will do everything to not turn people away," he said. "We will fight tooth and nail to avoid that."

From July 1 to Sept. 25 of last year, The Road Home had provided shelter to about 55 families and 130 children. But this year, the demand has doubled. As of Thursday, the shelter had seen about 118 families, a 115 percent increase from last year, with about 251 children.

"We're facing quite a challenge around here," Minkevitch said. "We are very concerned. Without a doubt it will be a winter of discontent."

A tight rental market, limited job options and a surgery have kept Rhiannon Butcher, 27, and Robert Olsen, 35, and their two children, ages 1 and 7, in the shelter since July. Until a few weeks ago, they slept in the lobby overflow, but have since been moved to a family room. Both said they are eager to get back into a place of their own.

Olsen has work experience as a fast-food restaurant manager, but without a two-income household, the money was not enough to pay the bills, he said. Butcher recently had elbow surgery, which prevents her from working.

"From the outside looking in, the public might automatically judge, but a lot of what has us here has to do with the economy," Olsen said. "Our goal is to be stabilized so we're not in this situation again."

Minkevitch said more families are homeless because of the troubling economy, but even more so because of a high demand for rental units.

"In a tight rental market, people are having to stay in the shelter longer as well, which starts to back things up," he said.

The Road Home is not the only facility in Utah that is busier than usual. St. Anne's Center in Ogden is also well-overbooked. The facility has rooms specifically for families, which have been full for months, and about a dozen families are still on a waiting list to get in, St. Anne's Center Executive Director Jennifer Canter said.

"In the winter we ramp up our staff to accommodate more people," she said. "But right now we're so full we have to ramp it up earlier. The need increases daily, which is not typical this time of year."

Many families looking to the shelter have never been on the street before, but circumstances like unemployment, rising rent, gas and food prices have derailed many who live paycheck-to-paycheck. Other factors, including the death of a breadwinner, divorce, illness or disablement, can cause situational homelessness as well, she said.

"It gets to the point when they have to choose whether to buy food or pay rent," Canter said. "A lot of our families wound up getting evicted from where they were living. Paying the rent is the last thing they think about when they are hungry."

Charles, 42, and Heather, 32, of Ogden, have been homeless since April, when a judge ordered the pair and their three children, ages 5, 7 and 9, to move out of their home within three days after it was foreclosed. The couple said they did not want to reveal their last name because they feel embarrassed about their situation.

Charles, a construction worker for about 20 years, lost his job after he failed to report a back injury he suffered on the job. Heather ails from a disability that has kept her out of work. The family took what they could fit into their van, but ended up losing most of their belongings.

"We had nowhere to go," Heather said. "I had a lot of knickknacks that I had to give away to a friend that were precious to me. All of our kids' clothes, our beds, our furniture, our TVs . . . everything is gone."

They found temporary shelter for a few months at the home of Heather's brother, but when he was evicted, it forced the family of five onto the streets.

They lived in their van for about a week before a slot opened up for them at St. Anne's earlier this month.

Charles is currently working with a vocational counselor to help him find another line of work and get his family back into a home. One objective at St. Anne's is to get families into stable homes within 90 days, Canter said.

For now, the family will have to rely on the shelter for clothing, toiletries, meals and transportation.

"I thought I did a very good job to prepare a good life for me and my family," Charles said. "This is just something you don't expect to happen. You have to trust in God."

cmayorga@sltrib.com