Nearly a decade ago, Amy Daeschel could have used a bed — and the wraparound help that comes with it — in Utah’s new program for people experiencing homelessness.

At that point, in 2017, she had spent two years living on the streets, and had overdosed twice.

“Seven times I was arrested,” she told attendees at the opening of Utah’s revamped Orange Street Community Correctional Center in Salt Lake City. “Seven times I sat in a cell, and seven times I walked out the same woman I was when I first went in, although just a little more convinced that I was beyond saving.”

Ultimately, through 2017’s Operation Rio Grande, Daeschel accepted a spot at the House of Hope, a substance abuse recovery center. Now, she’s the director of clinical intake and business development at Odyssey House, a different recovery center.

At a ceremony Wednesday afternoon, she helped open the Utah Department of Corrections’ new program for homeless Utahns who have five or more convictions for low-level crimes — such as trespassing or shoplifting. The department, in three different buildings, will help people break that cycle by providing treatment and a place to live for about six to eight months.

The program, known as the ARCH Project, can host up to 180 people at a time. The department said about 1,300 Utahns are likely eligible for it.

The initiative is the first of its kind run by a corrections agency in the United States, officials said. It represents Utah’s biggest effort to date to provide a different path for those continuously cycling through jails, rehabilitation facilities, emergency rooms and shelters.

Four people are already a part of the program. Utah judges are now able to assign people to the program as court-ordered probation.

“We have amazing providers in the homeless services space [who] are serving these clients through street outreach or through emergency shelter,” said Tyler Clancy, Utah’s homelessness coordinator. “The challenge becomes when [the] challenges that the individual is facing [are] too significant [that] they need specialized support, and that’s what this is. So, rather than replacing something in the system, this is just adding a new type of capacity that hasn’t existed before.”

The new beds come with intensive case management and personalized attention that stays with them for up to three years — even if someone comes into the program who is a better fit for an outside drug rehabilitation center.

“It’s just another option for somebody to become stable,” said Nick Bricker, the program’s chief, “and what we’re providing in this is case management from beginning all the way through.”

That means staff members can help people get vital documents they may have lost, or make connections to employment opportunities. Officials also emphasized that behavioral change and personal growth will be a big part of the program.

The Utah Legislature this spring passed HB110, which opened the door for the corrections department to create the project. Lawmakers backed the bill with $2.6 million for renovations of facilities to host it and $6 million to run it.

The department has hired about 50 new staff members to provide the care.