After more than a decade of consensus among Democrat and Republican policymakers on how the nation should approach homelessness, a reckoning is underway.
A recent report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development indicates that the homelessness crisis is at its worst level on record despite billions of dollars in programs that promised to house every person who demonstrated need. Those programs are likely to undergo substantial revision in the coming months as President Donald Trump takes office.
The specific changes to the various HUD homelessness programs are not yet known, but the policies before the Utah Legislature this year may offer some insight into what is in store for the rest of the country. Rep. Tyler Clancy (R-Provo) is spearheading an effort alongside other lawmakers and state officials to shift the state’s focus from ineffective housing programs to much-needed services that treat the underlying behavioral health needs of homeless individuals. Other states like Florida and Georgia took similar steps this past year.
Utah is unique, however, among conservative states. Like other states in the western U.S. that have seen unprecedented increases in homelessness, Utah’s homelessness rate has soared to nearly 25% higher than that of states with similar populations, like Arkansas and Connecticut. In response, Utah leaned into the HUD-recommended Housing First model. Utah is one of the only Republican-led states to create a statewide homelessness office and devote tens of millions of state funds to support housing programs that most states leave cities and HUD to fund.
A decade ago, homelessness advocates nationwide praised Utah as a Housing First model for other states like California, which has invested billions of dollars into the same ineffective approach.
Now, more than 1 in 4 homeless people in Utah lives on the street, nearly double the 13% figure in 2013. For the most vulnerable subsets of the homeless population — those with mental illness — the situation is even worse. Unsheltered homelessness among those with mental illness has nearly quadrupled. Homeless people addicted to drugs, about one-third of whom are also unsheltered, face similar challenges navigating the Housing First system, which promises them housing once they get on the long waiting list and then offers little support to keep them in it once they qualify.
Voters in Utah and across the country are increasingly concerned about the failures of the current approach to homelessness. A recent national poll of 1,117 likely voters found broad bipartisan support for reform, with 71% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans in favor of requiring homeless people to participate in treatment, work programs or stay sober as a condition of receiving publicly funded housing. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats and 69% of Republicans called for moving homeless people out of street camps and into shelters. Both policies are in stark opposition to the current Housing First model.
Lawmakers in Utah are moving quickly to coalesce around a new set of policies that are oriented around treating and supporting the most vulnerable parts of the homeless population that are underserved by Housing First. These policies include creating drug-free zones that enhance penalties for drug dealers targeting homeless people in or near shelters. The new laws would also reform syringe exchanges and pilot a new, more assertive, case management system. Lawmakers are also expected to call on the federal government to give the state more control over HUD-funded programs and end Housing First mandates that limit states’ ability to require mental health treatment or sobriety programs.
As the Trump administration considers alternatives to the status quo at HUD, it should look to Utah as an example of a state leading the way towards a new approach to homelessness that takes seriously the crisis unfolding on the streets of America’s once-great cities.
(Devon Kurtz) Devon Kurtz is the director of public safety policy at the Cicero Institute.
Devon Kurtz is the director of public safety policy at the Cicero Institute, a non-profit think tank, and lives in Salt Lake City.
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