Utah wants to change its approach to homelessness at the request of President Donald Trump.
Advocates, however, worry the state’s plans would take funds out of community control.
A July executive order from Trump shifted the nation’s approach to homelessness onto mental-health and substance abuse treatment through civil commitment, or involuntary institutionalization, rather than a housing-first focus. The idea struck a chord with Utah leaders.
Gov. Spencer Cox, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz sent a letter that same month to ask the state’s Homeless Services Board to align with the presidential order. They requested legislative recommendations from the board by Sept. 30.
“Utah must remain a place where lives can be meaningfully changed, not where chaos and disorder thrive,” the letter reads.
Randy Shumway, chair of the Utah Homeless Services Board, drafted a proposal to add a Certified Community Behavioral Health clinic to the state’s plans for a 1,300-bed homeless campus in Salt Lake City. The clinic would include at least 300 beds for people in court-ordered mental health treatment.
Shumway’s proposal also recommends that Utah’s three Continua of Care councils be consolidated. These entities are designated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to give communities control of their own funding and homeless services.
That suggestion concerns Andi Beadles, a member of the Weber-Morgan County Local Homeless Council. She said local jurisdictions need to make decisions based on their unique needs. If the care councils merge, she said it would be up to a single governing body to disperse funding throughout the whole state.
“Not only will we lose local control, but our funding,” she said. “We already don't have enough funding, and are operating on shoestring budgets.”
While the majority of Utahns experiencing homelessness live near the capital city, homeless rates are rising throughout the state. Beadles is worried funds statewide will be directed to the massive new campus as Utah searches for ways to pay the project’s $75 million price tag.
“If all of the homeless funding is just going to Salt Lake, and we're not able to meet the needs at a local level, we will have to send our homeless people to Salt Lake, where their already overburdened system will be even more burdened,” she said.
Most continuum of care funding goes to housing services, according to Josh Romney, president of the nonprofit Shelter the Homeless. He’s a volunteer consultant for the Homeless Services Board, and touched on the concern at its Sept. 25 board meeting.
“If we start fiddling with that money, you're going to be pulling people out of housing into homelessness,” Romney said.
He said the plan gives housing services challenges they shouldn’t have to face. While people experiencing homelessness need housing options, he said, they also need treatment if they’re in crisis.
“Could everything be managed better? Absolutely,” he said.
Romney said there are missing pieces to figure out. Along with other amendments to its yet-to-be-approved proposal added at its Sept. 25 meeting, the board plans to work with stakeholders to fill gaps before the solution is formally submitted for the 2026 General Legislative Session.
