Salt Lake County leaders are setting a lofty goal for the next five years: create 1,000 new housing units as a part of a new homelessness plan.
“We have set a bold benchmark,” county Mayor Jenny Wilson said at a July 19 news conference.
The county estimates that 1,000 people are living unsheltered within its borders at any time with hundreds of those individuals needing mental health treatment.
That’s why a majority of this housing, Wilson said, will be targeted at individuals with mental illness, including 300 group home units and 300 permanent, supportive housing units. The county is also promising 400 housing units for other individuals experiencing homelessness.
The county has already started building more of this housing in 2024.
While more housing is one part of the plan, county leaders repeatedly said it alone is not enough to combat homelessness. Mental health support, drug enforcement and jail resources are all lacking, too. The plan identifies gaps in the county’s current approach and how it will solve them.
“We now have a clear vision of the need, gaps and solutions,” Wilson said and acknowledged the plan will change in the future.
The five-year plan includes hiring 10 more drug enforcement officers and more crisis intervention training for law enforcement.
Instead of getting the help they need, many homeless people with mental illness are being sent to the county jail, Wilson said. Part of the plan includes building a “justice and accountability center” to provide mental health services, transitional housing and other support services to homeless individuals who have been in the criminal justice system. The plan also calls for expanding the jail with 100 beds that are meant to be a “step-down model” to help people transition back into the community.
“Our goals are to bolster system access, increase cost savings. We are seeking to collaborate and find efficiencies, require accountability for criminal acts, yet not criminalize the very act of simply being homeless,” Wilson said.
Recently, Utah public defenders have been concerned about increased criminalization of homelessness after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that imposing citations or arresting people for sleeping outdoors is not “cruel and unusual punishment” even if there are no shelter beds available.
The plan also includes expanding medical and street services through the Fourth Street Clinic, as well as more peer support and workforce support.
Other county leaders, like Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill and County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, heralded the plan as being more collaborative across divisions than the county’s past approach to homelessness.
In total, the plan is estimated to cost $42.29 million over the next five years. Wilson said the county is looking at local, state, federal and philanthropic money to make it happen.
