Weber County officials are fighting red tape and the fear of public backlash as they continue their search for a viable emergency winter shelter space that could house 100 people.
The state required Weber and other large counties to submit a winter plan by August, and documents show Weber County officials seemed to believe they’d have a site by September. But officials didn’t anticipate it would be so difficult, said Weber County Commissioner Sharon Bolos.
It’s been so hard to find a space for short-term winter shelter that Bolos said officials are now mulling constructing a larger shelter to serve the county’s homeless population year-round — instead of scrambling every year to come up with a winter plan, as required by Utah law. The latest Point-in-Time count found 455 people experiencing homelessness in Weber County, up from 353 the year before.
“Whatever we even find this year is probably not going to be available next year ...,” she said. “And so we’re starting to have conversations about what it would cost and where it would be located, if we could build our own facility or convert something.”
The emergency shelters are intended to shelter homeless people on “code blue” days, when temperatures are expected to drop to 18 degrees or lower. So far, six “code blue” days have come and gone as county officials continue to field proposals and tour prospective sites.
The county has been able to host all who showed up looking for shelter at its two existing facilities, or in hotels and motels, but Bolos said officials are anxious to find a reliable solution.
They have run into trouble with zoning and owners who stop returning calls — or those looking to sell who have been advised against hosting a shelter because it makes the property harder to show. The space also must have a fire suppression system and restrooms, which has been challenging; Bolos said officials were ready to move forward with a site by adding portable toilets outside, but requirements to check people in and out of emergency shelters thwarted that plan.
Bolos, who also chairs the Weber-Morgan Local Homeless Council, said commissioners and that council have been contacting municipalities and local school districts to find any suitable site — “municipal buildings that aren’t being used. Just any option” — but they’ve had no luck.
“We’re still just reaching out every opportunity we can to try to find something that’s conducive, and there seems to be some willingness to help us find a place,” she said, “but sometimes those don’t work out.”
Leaders fear local reaction to setting up a shelter
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) People gather outside of Lantern House, a homeless shelter in Ogden that will open additional beds on “code blue” nights, on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024.
Part of the issue is bureaucratic, Bolos said. Another is concern about residents’ reaction. In Davis County, for instance, officials endured tense public meetings with community members who did not want a significantly smaller shelter near their homes or in their communities.
Bolos said that fear exists even as county leaders haven’t heard directly from any actual residents. Instead, she said they have heard from their local leaders, who are “very cognizant of how it would be received.”
“That’s part of the concern that we hear from city leaders is location, what it would mean for the neighborhood, and so we anticipate that,” Bolos said, “which is why we’re trying to be really selective in what we pursue.”
The winter response plans are a product of a 2023 law that requires Utah’s most populous counties to prepare in advance for sheltering unhoused residents from frigid weather.
Counties had two options: create a “winter response plan,” or provide the state with documentation ensuring that they would “address the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness within the county throughout the entire year.”
Weber County chose option No. 1, and were budgeted $323,460 in state funds to provide emergency winter shelter, according to according to a Homeless Services Board decision document.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) A car passes in front of Ogden Rescue Mission in Ogden on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024.
They secured two locations prior to the August plan deadline at already functioning shelters (the Lantern House and Youth Futures) to house 32 people, mostly families and teenagers. But they still lacked a site that could hold about 100 people.
The goal then was to come back to the state in September for approval, according to Utah Homeless Services Board meeting minutes. Bolos said months earlier, a city mayor had connected them with a promising location, but when the time came to sign the deal, “it became really hard to contact them and get a hold of them,” and the deal fell through.
There are no formal repercussions for counties that fail to submit a suitable winter plan by the August deadline. The state can, instead, select sites for the county.
Sarah Nielson, a spokesperson for the state’s Office of Homeless Services, said officials haven’t yet found a “viable site” in Weber County. The state has accepted plans from all other counties required by law to submit a winter plan — Washington, Utah, Salt Lake and Davis.
Nielson said the state is “supporting” Weber County officials through the process, and added there are options to use some funding to supply hotel/motel vouchers.
Weber County is not expected to have a “code blue” day called before Saturday morning, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services dashboard.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) People experiencing homelessness lay on the grass beside the street near Ogden Rescue Mission in Ogden on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024.
