May 2017 | Vol. 11 Iss. 05
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A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS: Homeless shelter site selection By Kelly Cannon & Travis Barton | editor@mycityjournals.com
T
he events and decisions that led up to the selection of the various homeless shelter sites in Salt Lake County are filled with frustration, confusion and outright hostility. The issue of what to do with the growing homeless population in the county and where to put them has been met with several different solutions, none of which everyone seems to agree upon. However, the final decisions on where to put homeless resource centers were made and many neighborhoods and communities are about to change.
Sugar House Rebuts Instead of empathy, the decision was met with outrage, most vehemently in Sugar House where one site was set for 653 E. Simpson Ave.—across the street from a residential neighborhood that would replace four local businesses. Residents poured into city council meetings, open houses and the Sugar House Community Council meeting to voice opposition to a decision made behind closed doors. City officials maintained they did so to avoid pitting neighborhoods against one another. “The way the city’s handled this, it’s building nothing but resentment from most of the community,” said Chris Sveiven, who lives 75 feet away from the proposed site. Biskupski pleaded with residents to embrace the resource model that would disperse the homeless population and “stop subjecting them to easy access by drug dealers.” She also urged compassion for “families that need to be embraced by us, that need a little bit of help.”
Residents of Draper have a quick show of hands of who opposes the homeless shelter sites. (Kelly Cannon/City Journals)
Residents, however, felt the model was too risky. “You’re asking us to take a leap of faith,” resident Shane Stroud told Biskupski during the community council meeting. “This isn’t a leap of faith, this is a gamble and the costs of that gamble are extremely high.” Stroud added if the center didn’t work as intended, repercussions would last decades. Legislative Take Over On Feb. 24, the four shelter plan was scrapped with two proposed sites dropped—including the Simpson site—and a plan was developed to build a third site somewhere in Salt Lake County. Legislation was passed on March 9 that appropriated more than $10 million to help build the resource centers and removed local cities from having any formal say on the mater. That legislation also required Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams to recommend a site to the state’s Homeless Coordinating Committee by March 30, or risk losing the money. March 10 saw five homeless sites selected—three in West Valley City and two in South Salt Lake, with two additional South Salt Lake sites added on March 21.
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Announcement of New Homeless Resource Shelters On Dec. 13, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and the city council announced the locations of four 150-bed homeless shelters around the city that would also serve as resource centers. The locations were: 653 E. Simpson Ave. (2300 South), 275 W. High Ave. (1400 South), 131 E. 700 South, and 648 W. 100 South. The selection was announced without any public comment and are the result of a two-year selection processes. The mayor and council said the decision was made without public input because they wanted to avoid pitting neighborhoods against each other. However, they promised to hold open houses to gain feedback from the community. “A process that would pit different communities in our city against each other and tear our city apart as we try to affect change, was not something we felt comfortable doing,” Biskupski told residents at a Sugar House Community Council meeting. The idea behind the four sites was to provide services such as mental health, substance abuse treatment and job training while drawing people away from The Road Home shelter in downtown Salt Lake City, which is scheduled to be closed. City officials said the smaller shelters would have a minimal impact on the neighborhoods with no drug dealing allowed near the sites and high levels of security. However, not everybody was happy with the decisions.
What ensued was three weeks of what McAdams deemed would be a “robust but abbreviated” process to include public input with four open houses and one public comment session. West Valley City and South Salt Lake Fight Against Site Selection West Valley City officials repeatedly decried the sites selected, citing the stress it would place on fire and police departments, the unproven service model and overall rushed process. “It’s complete vapor,” said WVC City Manager Wayne Pyle of the planned service model during an open house on March 18. He said these resources being talked about are “great ideas and we’d love to see them implemented” but doesn’t feel they are fully formed with no plans, funds or specifics. “In our mind what we have is this shelter being moved from downtown to West Valley or wherever with a lot of good intention, but not anything in terms of an actual plan to prove that it’s gonna be any different than where it is right now,” Pyle said. The county has studied homelessness reforms for over two years according to McAdams. Resource centers are designed to serve specific populations such as single women or single men. continued on page 4…
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