A proposed Salt Lake County bond that would contribute $507 million to public safety, criminal justice reform and homelessness solutions continued to trail Wednesday with a nail-biter margin.
As of 3 p.m., the measure had 50.7% opposed to 49.3% in favor. The outcome remains too close to call.
Mayor Jenny Wilson, who championed the proposal during her reelection campaign, said Tuesday night that she was not in a position to claim victory or defeat amid an “incredibly close” margin. At the time, returns showed 49.7% of voters in favor.
“You’re asking people to have trust and pay more, and I think it’s a very difficult type of initiative to educate on,” Wilson said. “It’s a very complex initiative and I’m pleased that there’s a good chance it will pass. And I’m very committed, as are others at Salt Lake County — including the sheriff — to reform in the right way, and that’s what this bond represented.”
If voters embrace the measure, the county would create a new facility for low-level offenders, combine the two existing jails into one and provide more mental health resources at the Salt Lake County jail.
Under the plan, Oxbow Jail would close. The county’s other jail would be expanded to include more beds, an improved substance use disorder treatment unit, and a transitional unit to prepare inmates to “rejoin society,” according to a county presentation on the bond.
The Oxbow Jail’s demolition would cost about $10 million, but officials estimate the sale of the property would bring about $20 million in revenue that would be used for the total $627 million cost of the county’s public safety and criminal justice reform plan. Another $100 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief money would also chip away at that total price tag, leaving property owners to foot a $507 million bill.
Repaying the bond would cost the average homeowner nearly $60 a year.
Wendy Garvin, executive director of Unsheltered Utah, was in favor of the bond. Despite supporting the services the measure would provide for the county’s homeless population, she wasn’t thrilled about funding more jail beds.
“Our unsheltered population is frequently jailed for very trivial things,” she said, “and the more beds there are, the more likely people are to be jailed in that way.” Still, she said, she’s concerned the bond’s potential failure could jeopardize the state’s ability to build a new 1,200-bed homeless shelter because the plan seemed interconnected with the success of the ballot measure.
Last month, an internal state memo obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune revealed the county-owned Oxbow Jail site was, at least at one point, among the leading contenders to host the state’s planned homeless campus. The jail site is not the only option being considered for the campus.
State homelessness coordinator Wayne Niederhauser said the state’s homeless campus “remains a separate initiative” from the bond, but that the measure’s success would “enhance the effectiveness of the entire system.”
Bill Tibbitts, deputy executive director of Crossroads Urban Center, is hopeful that local leaders can regroup if the bond fails and propose solutions that will steer Utahns from incarceration, eliminating the need for a larger jail.
“Law enforcement by itself cannot solve the fact that we don’t have a plan for keeping low-income people with schizophrenia indoors,” Tibbitts said. ”There are people who need more support than a shelter can provide, and who need different services than a jail can provide.”
