The location is set, and now Gov. Spencer Cox needs state lawmakers to start spending so Utah’s planned 1,300-bed homeless shelter can become a reality.
Cox’s 2026 budget calls for $30 million in one-time funding and $20 million in ongoing cash to target Utah’s “high-utilizers” who continually cycle through the homeless services system. The centerpiece of the spending package is the mega-shelter slated for Salt Lake City’s west side.
“If [someone is] shelter-averse or struggling, they start with the campus, and then when they’re ready, when they’re stabilized, then they move to one of our resource centers, where they get additional services,” Cox said. “And then we get them into transitional housing, and then we get them into permanent housing. That’s how it’s all supposed to work.”
The governor’s proposed budget comes as Utah reconsiders how it tackles homelessness. State officials have long followed a policy of getting homeless people into housing first, but now officials are weighing a system that focuses on behavioral health care and forcing more people into help. Such a pivot would put the state in line with a summertime executive order from President Donald Trump.
The Utah Homeless Services Board directed officials in October 2024 to build a sprawling, centralized campus offering beds and social services. Now, with the facility due to land at 2520 N. 2200 West, the board and others are debating exactly what role it should play in a redesigned system.
Regardless of those particulars, though, one thing is certain: It’s going to cost millions.
To that end, Cox wants lawmakers to shell out $25 million to help build the shelter and $20 million a year to run it. Legislators have historically underfunded the governor’s budget requests on homelessness, but even if they put up all the cash he wants, state officials are likely to still face a shortfall on the campus project.
Now-retired state homelessness coordinator Wayne Niederhauser previously estimated it would cost $75 million to build and $34 million a year to function. Utah has already allocated about $23 million to the project, so if lawmakers embrace Cox’s proposal, the Beehive State will still likely have to plug a $25 million-plus hole. The governor said the state would request money from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to fill the gap.
Another $5 million of one-time spending in Cox’s overall $30.7 billion fiscal 2027 budget would help expand The Other Side Village, a community of tiny houses also on the west side of Utah’s capital.
“We’re very supportive of that project,” the governor said.
Cox’s budget includes a total of $131.5 million — which encompasses that $50 million for homelessness — to aid the state’s most vulnerable people, including those who have been victims of crime and seniors. It also earmarks $1.64 billion for the state’s Department of Workforce Services, where the Office of Homeless Services and many of Utah’s programs for those struggling with homelessness reside.
The legislative session starts Jan. 20.