For years, state leaders have talked the talk about addressing homelessness. This year, the checkbook appears to be walking the walk.
Interim State Homeless Coordinator Nick Coleman said it felt like a “tremendous vote of confidence” from lawmakers after the Executive Appropriations Committee released its preliminary state budget Friday night.
There isn’t a specific line item for the 1,300‑bed homeless campus that Gov. Spencer Cox and other lawmakers promoted ahead of the session. However, Coleman said the money in the budget funds programs that are the foundation.
“These are key programs that would inform whatever that might look like. So this is really to lay the groundwork on key programs that will eventually become a big part of what we're hoping to do in the future,” he said.
As for Cox’s request, he sought $25 million in one‑time funding and an ongoing $20 million. Lawmakers approved the one‑time amount in full, spreading it across several homeless service areas.
“This budget primarily addresses the governor's three pillars,” Coleman said. “So there’s representation in there for high utilizers, emergency shelter, mental and behavioral health.”
Almost $23 million that was previously dedicated to low‑barrier shelters — emergency housing facilities with minimal requirements for vulnerable individuals — was reappropriated. This is likely the source of most of the one‑time funding, Coleman noted, meaning it’s not necessarily new money.
There is also a line item for “Phase II investments,” which Coleman interprets as ongoing funding for programs his office wants to implement but hasn’t yet fully defined.
As for Cox’s request for $20 million in ongoing funding, a little more than $17.5 million has been allocated
The ongoing debate over how to best address homelessness in Utah largely hinges on disagreements over a housing‑first approach versus treatment‑first, with Democrats favoring immediate housing and Republicans prioritizing addiction or mental‑health treatment before placement.
Previously, Utah has taken a housing first approach. Homelessness, however, has consistently risen since the pandemic, so many lawmakers feel that the response was ineffective. The Trump administration has also been trying to walk national policy in a different direction.
“I'm hearing a whole lot of rhetoric, especially coming from D.C. and federal side, that this whole housing first model didn't work, and now we've got to basically reinvent the wheel,” Democratic Sen. Jennifer Plumb said.
But she believes Utah’s housing first attempt wasn’t properly supported.
“We didn't adequately fund it, but we sure didn't fund case management and both physical and mental health care, addiction services, job education, all of the pieces that people need,” she said.
The Trump overhaul is, for now, blocked by a judge. It would have opened new federal funding pathways but added conditions allowing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to deny funds to organizations that recognize transgender or nonbinary people, prompting lawsuits and a federal pause on spending.
Utah has aligned itself with Trump's executive order from last summer, in hopes of federal support. However, considering political uncertainty and stalled funding, Coleman believes the state can only focus on what it currently has in its piggy bank.
“Until that point, this funding that the Legislature has allocated is exactly what we needed to be able to hit the ground running, and we're just going to start there.”
The Office of Homeless Services is undergoing a changing of the guard, with Republican Rep. Tyler Clancy stepping down from the House to become the state coordinator. He told KUER he wants to depoliticize homelessness and ensure Utah does not take a “one‑size‑fits‑all” approach.
Part of the budding strategy is involuntary commitment for those experiencing advanced stages of drug addiction or mental‑health issues, one of the more controversial elements of the homeless campus proposal. Clancy didn’t specify what that would look like, but noted the state needs infrastructure for high utilizers of the criminal justice system.
High utilizers are homeless individuals, often with substance abuse disorders, who are frequently arrested.
“One can agree or disagree on the type of intervention that someone needs when they're getting caught up in the criminal justice system because of addiction to usually opioids or methamphetamine, but I think everyone can agree that there needs to be some intervention,” Clancy said.
He didn’t say whether the state should contribute more funding to homelessness, but made it clear he wants to take a critical look at how public dollars are spent.
In the past, there has been tension between state and city governments over homelessness. Just last year, the state passed a bill requiring Salt Lake City to partner with the state’s Department of Public Safety on the issue, which received mixed reviews from both levels of government.
Clancy, for his part, wants a clean slate.
“Whatever rivalries or turf wars or disagreements we've had in the past, it's a new day, and we've got to start that,” he said, emphasizing that this issue doesn’t just impact policymakers — it affects vulnerable Utahns living on the street.
As he steps into the state’s lead role, Clancy’s goal is to build a statewide framework that offers a range of treatment options for the diverse populations experiencing homelessness. Whether he can deliver remains to be seen, though state leaders have signaled they’re prepared to invest heavily in programs they believe could make a difference.
