As winter looms and homeless shelter capacity strains, Utah leaders ask: Will we be ready?
By Katie McKellar,
2024-08-28
People experiencing homelessness sit on the edge of Washington Square in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 25, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall aired some frustrations at the start of the Utah Homeless Services Board meeting on Thursday, when the powerful governing body that distributes crucial funding and oversees the state’s local homeless providers met for a third time since its restructuring .
Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature funded $25 million for a new emergency homeless shelter , with 600 to 800 beds, to be sited somewhere in the state. Wayne Niederhauser, the governor’s state homeless coordinator, has been working to find a property for that shelter — but has not yet made a decision. Previously, Niederhauser has said the siting process would likely take months, and that the shelter likely wouldn’t be up and running until at least next year.
In the meantime, however, Utah’s homeless system has not expanded its permanent emergency shelter options. With fall and winter around the corner, the pressure is also on for state, county and city leaders to execute their temporary winter overflow plans. And time is running short.
“It’s August,” Mendenhall told the board, describing it as one of the busiest times in Salt Lake City when it comes to people camping on the streets. “It is incredibly difficult to continue to wait for more shelter.”
The mayor of Utah’s capital city also said she’s “heard rumors that Salt Lake City has decreased enforcement” of the city’s anti-camping ordinances and other public safety efforts, and she stressed “these rumors are unsubstantiated and patently false.”
“We made a commitment to do our part,” Mendenhall said, when it comes to enforcing anti-camping ordinances and encouraging those living on Salt Lake City streets to access services for people experiencing homelessness. “We made a commitment with the governor’s office, with the county mayor’s office, with the private business community, and we are upholding our end of that deal.”
“What has not happened,” the mayor continued, “is an increase in emergency shelter beds. In fact, today, we have fewer shelter beds than we did six months ago.”
Utah’s emergency shelter capacity fluctuates with the seasons. During the winter, emergency shelter capacity increases under state-mandated “winter response” plans, which state law requires from certain counties to offer more temporary winter overflow homeless shelter beds as temperatures drop.
But with fall around the corner and with fingers continuing to be pointed at Salt Lake City, which has historically borne the brunt of Utah’s homelessness issues, Mendenhall continued her yearslong calls for other partners — state officials and other cities — to act.
“I’m not blaming, because I know how difficult it is to create emergency shelter and to site permanent shelter,” Mendenhall said. “I know how hard it is, and I know how hard you are working on this.
“But I really am done taking blame for the entire homeless system.”
Mendenhall pointed to Utah’s state strategic plan that has outlined what the Utah Homeless Services Board needs to do to work toward its goals to make sure homelessness is “rare, brief and non-recurring,” and she noted that plan includes “best practices for addressing encampments.”
“Salt Lake City is following these principles to the absolute, very best of our ability,” she said. “But we can’t create more emergency shelter. That responsibility was taken on by other partners. But our success in addressing camping will always be tied to housing services and emergency shelter.”
Mendenhall called on the board, as well as city and county officials involved in homelessness efforts, to look at the state strategic plan — and Salt Lake County’s five-year plan to build 1,000 new housing units and invest in drug enforcement officers — and “renew our energy and our commitment to accomplish these goals that we laid out for ourselves.”
“Because that is the way for us to address homelessness,” Mendenhall said, “not arguing over our individual perceptions or by perpetuating any rumors.”
I know how hard it is, and I know how hard you are working on this. But I really am done taking blame for the entire homeless system.
– Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall
The board’s chair, Randy Shumway — who is also a member of the Utah Impact Partnership , a group of powerful philanthropists that lobbied the 2024 Utah Legislature for significant investment this year in Utah’s homelessness efforts — said the Utah Homeless Services Board’s next meeting scheduled for Sept. 12 will have a “meaty” agenda to discuss the status of Utah’s winter response plan and expanding its emergency shelter capacity.
Shumway also thanked the mayor, adding that last week he noticed the Salt Lake City Police Department was “out on the streets in a very intimate way, working with people … encouraging and offering services to them.”
“I witnessed it three separate times,” Shumway said. “I had a lot of calls about it. Thank you. I don’t want it to go without recognition, the efforts that were occurring.”
But Shumway also said when he’s walking downtown, “especially this summer, just the number of people that are sleeping on the sidewalks that are suffering has been ubiquitous.”
“I’ll confess that despite working with this vulnerable population for two decades, I don’t know what to do right now,” he said. “A few years ago, I would have run over, I would have taken a pulse, I would have called an ambulance … And now, because of the amount of pain being experienced, I’m doing what others are doing, because I’m really not sure what to do.”
However, Shumway added that he’s watched police officers take time to talk to people on the streets and offer services. He told Mendenhall that “we noticed. Thank you, for the police department coming to the rescue and providing that type of safety, in particular for this population.”
Salt Lake County is about 410 beds short for winter overflow
Utah law requires larger counties to submit winter response plans to state officials by Aug. 1. They’re required to formulate a plan to increase temporary shelter options for people experiencing homelessness between Oct. 15 and April 30.
Two counties submitted plans that were “compliant” with Utah law, Utah County and Washington County, Niederhauser told the board.
But three were “noncompliant” — Salt Lake, Weber and Davis counties — because they fell short of establishing the needed shelter capacity. That means the Utah Office of Homeless Services can now exercise “special” or “preemptive powers to actually go into that county, we could find a facility, and without local authority or land use (processes), our efforts would override that land use authority,” Niederhauser said.
Niederhauser credited Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties for putting forward an “amazing effort,” but given the needs expected to increase homeless shelter options this winter, the state now needs to step in and assist.
“It’s a heavy lift,” Niederhauser said, adding he appreciated all the counties’ efforts. “I was amazed. We’re having conversations we’ve never had before in counties that have never addressed homelessness.”
Utah state homeless coordinator Wayne Niederhauser (left) and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall (middle) participate as board members during the newly created Utah Homeless Services Board’s first meeting at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on May 16, 2024. (Courtesy of Utah’s Office of Homeless Services)
Salt Lake County’s plan identified about half of the 900 emergency shelter beds determined to be needed for the upcoming winter by the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness along with the Utah Office of Homeless Services. The coalition also identified a need for 20 additional emergency shelter beds for youth and 50 additional non-congregate shelter beds for families, bringing the total need to 970 beds in Salt Lake County.
Finding more than 900 temporary winter overflow beds — which is as many beds as Salt Lake County has on an ongoing, year-round basis — is a “tall order,” Niederhauser said. Salt Lake County’s plan fell about 410 beds short — meaning state officials can now step in to help make up that deficit.
To help close that gap, Niederhauser recommended the Utah Homeless Services Board recommit about $3.6 million in deeply affordable housing funds to help a developer, Ville Property Management, acquire two properties (Ville 1990 at 1900 W. North Temple in Salt Lake City and Ville 66 at 975 E. 6600 South in Murray) to potentially offer all 410 emergency shelter beds as part of Salt Lake County’s winter overflow plan, then be converted to permanent supportive housing later.
“We think at this point that they potentially could be used to solve the 410, or part of the 410 deficit,” Niederhauser said.
The board voted unanimously to give the Utah Office of Homeless Services’ permission to recommit that funding.
To adhere to the state requirements that it play a part in helping address the state’s homeless issues, Davis County since earlier this year has been exploring creating a year-round homeless shelter , which drew some backlash in public meetings.
Davis County officials have “found a facility,” Niederhauser said — the old Lifeline for Youth building, 1130 W. Center Street, #2917, in North Salt Lake, which previously served as a youth treatment facility. That shelter would house 52 individuals and 26 families.
Niederhauser recommended the board set aside $1.75 million to help the county purchase and renovate the building, which would cost a total of $4.7 million. Philanthropic funds and Davis County funds would pay for the rest, he said.
“In my opinion, having a facility like this in Davis County is very important to that county, important to our system statewide,” Niederhauser said. “Having this kind of effort from a major county is important, at least in my opinion, and I think it’s an opportunity to give another community a chance to show what can be done to help people who get into homelessness get back out of homelessness.”
Niederhauser said Davis County officials have been talking with the homeless service provider Switchpoint, which operates a host of facilities, including a homeless shelter converted from an old school on the same campus of a supportive housing development in Tooele, which has drawn praise from state and local officials.
“They were impressed with the Tooele model,” Niederhauser said of Davis County officials, “and they’ve been working towards making that happen.”
Some board members expressed reluctance, saying they’d heard the selection of that site caught some North Salt Lake leaders off guard, but Niederhauser said the board needed to show at least some indication of support in order for the real estate transaction to go forward.
Ultimately, the board voted to indicate initial support of setting those funds aside for the North Salt Lake facility, but said it would make a final determination at its Sept. 12 meeting.
As for Weber County, its winter response plan fell about 100 beds short, and it has not yet secured a facility to make up those 100 beds, Niederhauser said. “We’ll be working with them, but hopefully they’ll get that facility and that will solve that problem, and we can bring back to you in September plans and a budget.”
Mendenhall thanked Niederhauser for his work, but said she “shuddered to hear that we need as many emergency shelter beds as we have year-round beds.”
“And I hope, sincerely, that we get out of the business of temporary winter shelter as fast as possible,” Mendenhall said, adding that’s why she’s eager to get an update on the effort to site permanent emergency shelter beds.
“Because this ramping up and ramping down and searching every year for new spaces is heroic,” she said. “But it’s also wasteful of taxpayer dollars — and most of all the humanitarian crisis (of not having) beds.”
However, Mendenhall also said she’s grateful other counties are playing a part in the effort to address homelessness statewide.
“It’s wonderful to have such a showing from these counties who are having the conversations — finally — with us.”
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