This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Intermountain Healthcare played Santa Claus on Wednesday with a gift of $500,000 to Salt Lake County's efforts to help the homeless.

The money will support providers such as the Fourth Street Clinic, which provides health care and dental services to homeless people.

"This is huge, and it's exciting," Laura Michalski, CEO of the Fourth Street Clinic, said at a news conference. "It's a wonderful gift."

The half-million-dollar donation is significant, Michalski said, because it will help the clinic and others reach more homeless people who have critical health care needs. The gift is equivalent to 8 percent of the clinic's annual budget of $6 million.

A prime reason Intermountain made the gift, said Mikelle Moore, community benefit vice president, is the initiative adopted recently by Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County known as "collective impact," which aims to minimize homelessness.

The approach works with providers and stakeholders to set a common agenda and measure individual outcomes for continuous improvement of homeless services.

The initiative is the outcome of a one-year effort by Mayor Ralph Becker's commission on homeless facilities and a committee headed by Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams that analyzed the impact and efficiency of homeless services.

"Intermountain's goal of helping people live the healthiest lives possible extends to everyone," Moore said. "With Salt Lake County, we hope to support community organizations that improve prevention, detection and management of chronic diseases, including low-income and homeless people who are even more vulnerable to these conditions."

McAdams said the gift signals important private-sector support of the "collective impact" initiative. He believes the Intermountain's generous gift will be followed by other private-sector donations.

"One of our 14 outcomes [goals] in the homelessness initiative is to meet the basic needs of those in crisis," McAdams said. "And nothing is more basic than helping the homeless receive health care."

The gift also is timely, McAdams said, because it shows private support for the plan to build smaller shelters in different areas. The strategy aims to separate families from single men and reduce the impact on the Pioneer Park area.

Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City and 31 providers of homeless services will request $27 million from the 2016 Utah Legislature to help fund those proposed smaller emergency shelters.

The Fourth Street Clinic will remain where it is at the corner of 400 South and 400 West. The Road Home shelter and the Weigand Homeless Resource Center will stay on Rio Grande Street near 200 South.

For many homeless people in Salt Lake City, the Fourth Street Clinic fulfills a critical need, said John Burt, a 48-year-old homeless man who also sits on the clinic's consumer advisory board. Burt has been the recipient of medical and dental care at the clinic for six years.

"It's helped me tremendously," he said. "This clinic is essential for homeless people."

Burt applauded Intermountain Healthcare for its gift. "It's fantastic," he said. "Every donation that comes here will be used where it's needed."

For more information on the "collective impact" initiative, visit slco.org.