Utah’s new approach to sheltering homeless residents isn’t working, and the state’s efforts to confront the crisis would be more effective with a sprawling, centralized campus, policymakers decided Wednesday.
The Utah Homeless Services Board — the committee that steers homeless policy in the Beehive State — voted to direct the state Office of Homeless Services to build a shelter with 1,200 beds on a 30-acre site in a year’s time.
It’s an acknowledgment from decision-makers that the dispersed model for sheltering, kick-started in 2019 with the opening of three “homeless resource centers,” is ineffective in keeping those experiencing homelessness off the streets.
“Let’s make sure that we’re building immediate solutions for immediate needs,” board Chair Randy Shumway said, “but doing it in an environment that we’re planning for the future and are able to build a very intentional plan around a transformative, centralized campus model.”
Utah’s homeless population has continued to grow since the state shifted its approach to shelters.
Salt Lake County alone lacks 800 to 1,200 beds, according to state homelessness coordinator Wayne Niederhauser. Beyond bed space, Niederhauser said, the system doesn’t adequately care for those experiencing homelessness because it lacks easily accessible resources like health care, job assistance and food.
It’s unclear where the future campus could be located, what resources would be provided there, and how state leaders plan to gather public input about the site.
For now, three homeless resource centers with 200 to 300 beds each function as the main low-barrier shelter options in the county. Despite bearing the “resource center” name, Niederhauser said the facilities have not been funded adequately to provide additional services outside of simple shelter.
“Now, have they been resourced to what we had envisioned? I would say, no,” Niederhauser said. “And that’s been part of the issue that we’ve been having with homelessness. First, we don’t have the number of beds we need and, second, these beds need to be fully resourced.”
Shumway noted that the scattered nature of the resource centers and other services often make getting help complicated.
Last winter, the state added about 675 temporary beds to the system, and 125 more on “Code Blue” nights, when temperatures plunged. However, Niederhauser said, when winter beds close in the spring, those who rely on the additional shelter can again face traumatic experiences while sleeping on the streets.
Niederhauser said the new campus can keep more people indoors year-round.
When it’s completed, the new shelter will offer 100 more beds than the old downtown Road Home space had before the shelter shuttered and the state moved to the scattered-site model.
While the board will require the Office of Homeless Services to identify possible locations along the Wasatch Front, Niederhauser said the state has “a pot of money to actually purchase some land and create an additional shelter in Salt Lake County.”
The Utah Legislature paved the way for a large shelter last session by allocating $25 million for a new facility.
Midvale Mayor Marcus Stevenson, a member of the homelessness board, cautioned that a 30-acre campus would stress whatever city eventually hosts the hub.
“We need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can,” Stevenson said, “to support that municipality with funding and anything else.”
The required size of the campus concerns Bill Tibbitts, deputy executive director of Crossroads Urban Center. While supportive of a new shelter, Tibbitts said a site of that magnitude may have to be in a remote area, and a far-flung facility would be difficult to access.
Niederhauser said the existing resource centers in Salt Lake City and neighboring South Salt Lake will have a continued role in the state’s homeless services system — possibly as shelter for specific groups experiencing homelessness, for example — but their exact responsibilities are yet to be worked out.
The Office of Homeless Services will have to bring three location options to the board by Dec. 15. Then, the office will draw up a master plan for the site and must open at least the shelter portion of the campus by next October.
— This is a developing story.
