SALT LAKE CITY — On the outside, Micheal Najera, Sky Standal and their four-month-old baby Miciah look like a happy family, but their journey has been dark.
"I've lost a friend trying to stay warm. Carbon monoxide killed her. I was pretty messed up myself,” Najera said. "We were on the streets.”
When Miciah was born, everything changed for him.
“This was something that I have to fight for,” Najera said.
Najera added that his family has always been hesitant about going to shelters.
“You can't have a child out there homeless, or they will take her away from you,” he said. "Our resources kind of ran out of, you know, couch surfing… but it's just a burden. I don't want to feel like a burden on friends and family.”
After trying everything they could, they were met with Nomad Alliance’s blue mobile shelter bus.
“She [Miciah] was one of the first guests that we've had on here while we were still renovating it,” said executive director Kseniya Kniazeza.
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They were also met with volunteers who have been in their shoes.
“They helped me get my stimulus check that I didn't think I was ever going to get, and to say thanks, they were asking for help to build a shower on the back of the bus, so I told them I'd help,” said construction supervisor Brian Drown.
It’s the only mobile shelter in Utah, with new features this year including bathrooms, showers and solar panels.
“We actually bought this bus during the two-year moratorium on evictions that happened a few years ago,” Kniazeza said. "You don't need to spend millions of dollars to provide shelter and warmth for people — you just need to believe that we're all deserving of more and better.”
With the temperatures dropping, the organization feels it’s important to meet people where they are.
“The people that we work with, the chronically unsheltered, often don't leave a four-to-six-block radius. They have their homes. They have the places where they feel safe. That's why this bus works. We go directly to where the people are, rather than expecting them to walk miles and miles to get to a warm place to sleep,” Kniazeza said.
While Najera said they are on the waiting list for housing, having a baby doesn’t put them any higher up, which means, for now, this bus is their lifeline and their way of keeping their family together.
"I love this baby to death, I’d do anything in order to make her happy, you know?” he said.
The bus will be available 24/7 until May.
For information on volunteering and to track where the bus will be, you can visit nomadalliance.org.
