The 2026-2027 Code Blue season is underway. Code Blue Alerts were approved under a state law that became effective in 2023. The alerts are issued, by county, when temperatures in specific areas are expected to drop to 18 degrees (including the wind chill) for 2 hours or more during a 24-hour period. The alert allows shelters to relax and expand to give officials some flexibility to identify new locations to shield people who are experiencing homelessness from the cold. This page provides information on the frequency and distribution of code blue events across the state.
For additional information, please visit the Department of Health and Human Services Code Blue website.
Utah Counties of 1st-4th Class
Utah Counties of 1st-4th Class
- Box Elder
- Cache
- Carbon
- Davis
- Duchesne
- Iron
- Juab
- Millard
- Morgan
- San Juan
- Sanpete
- Sevier
- Uintah
- Tooele
- Washington
- Weber
- Summit
- Utah
- Wasatch
- Salt Lake County
Code Blue Abbreviated Intake Process
A sample intake form can be found here.
In accordance with Utah State Code 35A-16-703 (2), shelters throughout the state must work with their Local Homeless Council (LHC) to implement expedited intake procedures in the event a code blue event is declared for that area. In order to ensure statewide consistency and to ensure that enough data is collected to understand and plan to address the need for additional shelter during extreme weather events, The Office of Homeless Services has established the following common standards for intake during a code blue event.
On-going Shelter Projects: These are projects that operate regularly outside of a declared code blue event. These include year-round and winter response shelters.
✔ Collect all data in the HMIS entry assessment
🗶 Do not conduct housing problem-solving at intake. Clients may be engaged in problem-solving while staying in the facility
✔ Coordinate with LHC to identify other ways to improve the efficiency of intake for the duration of the code blue event
Code Blue Specific Shelter Projects: These are projects that open in response to a code blue declaration and are not expected to operate outside the duration of the declaration.
✔ Collect the following data elements to create a deduplicated count of those accessing the shelter
and understand eligibility for other projects – Full Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number, Gender
🗶 Do not collect other data elements in the HMIS entry assessment
🗶 Do not conduct housing problem-solving at intake. Clients may be engaged in problem-solving while staying in the facility
✔ Coordinate with LHC to identify other ways to improve the efficiency of intake for the duration of the code blue event