Online Exclusives

The $300 Million Utah Homeless Question

$200-$300 million is spent every year on Utah’s homeless services. Is this money reducing homelessness? Utah State Auditor with 36 years of experience says “No”.

|


Answered by Utah’s Foremost State Auditor

$200-$300 million is spent every year on Utah’s homeless services. Is this money reducing homelessness? Utah State Auditor with 36 years of experience says “No”.

Should the Homeless in Salt Lake City be allowed to camp all day in our parks and on the sides of the streets? Use drugs in front of businesses? For the past few years, Salt Lake City has been saying “yes”. Residents have agreed because there is not enough shelter space. But as neighborhoods around resource centers are becoming more crime-ridden, blighted, and full of blatant abuse of the law. Residents and business owners are beginning to speak out.

Jim Buhanin is the Executive Director of the Pioneer Park Coalition which believes that it will soon be time for police to enforce public camping for the unsheltered homeless. Their choice will be go to a sanctioned campground, use rehabilitation services or go to jail. The PPC’s Grand Plan is to open a sanctioned campground for the homeless as well as a “transformational Center” similar to Haven for Hope.

On episode 119 of the Utah Stories Show, we drill down to the specifics of both the good and the bad of the Pioneer Park Coalition’s Plan.

The bad was demolishing and selling the land that the former Road Home was located before determining if the new homeless resource model was viable. The good is having something other than the obviously failing system of the resource centers and long-term supportive housing that is currently in place. The bad is the underfunded system that offers little to no support for the homeless who are so obviously in critical need of services to treat mental illness and addiction.

More resources are certainly needed, but Buhanin says these resources need to be accounted for. “The money will be available, as long as we know the services are “changing people’s lives.”

More on the Pioneer Park Coalitions’ long-term vision and plan can be found here.

RELATED CONTENT

Rampant Crime is Forcing Residents to Leave Ballpark Neighborhood in Salt Lake City

Crime Rate Soaring in Salt Lake Neighborhoods with Homeless Resource Centers

Utah’s Scary Housing Market

SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM AND SUBSCRIBE TO PRINT MAGAZINE

 

Subscribe to Utah Stories weekly newsletter and get our stories directly to your inbox

* indicates required



, ,


Join our newsletter.
Stay informed.

Related Articles


  • From Addiction to Success: Dylan Gibson’s Transformation at The Other Side Academy

    How one man transformed from a hardened life of a homeless, heroin-addicted criminal to becoming a strong, self-reliant construction manager.


  • Better Solutions Than Spending $2 Billion on a Gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon

    A challenge to the $2 billion taxpayer funded Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola is in the works. What else could that much money be used for?
    Gondola Works was the successful PR and marketing campaign that dazzled UDOT and UTA board members and gained the support of enough Wasatch Front Regional Council members to approve the overall $26 billion plan.

    The overriding questions are, Why should we be putting so much energy into a $26 billion plan that only focuses on transporting mostly elite skiers up to our mountains? How does this massive investment help average Utahns?


  • “We’re Criminalizing Homelessness”: Utah’s Growing Crisis and the Need for Collaboration

    In the heart of Salt Lake City, where the LDS Church sends aid to every corner of the globe, a growing humanitarian disaster is unfolding just blocks away.
    Homeless encampments are dismantled, lives disrupted, and still, there’s no lasting solution in sight.
    So why can’t Utah’s political leaders get it right?
    Homeless advocate Robin Pendergrast pulls back the curtain on the state’s broken system, revealing why temporary fixes like pods and camps are dismantled, and how grassroots efforts are the only thing keeping hope alive.

    “Instead of helping, we’re tearing down camps, bulldozing lives, and offering no place for these people to go,” Pendergrast says.
    Read on to find out why Utah’s war on homelessness is making things worse, and what needs to happen next.

    To access this post, you must purchase Full Access Membership.


  • The Battle Over Books in Utah: A Clash for the Future of Freedom

    “Books don’t turn kids gay, but banning them just might turn them into adults who can’t think for themselves.”

    With those words, Rebekah Cummings cut straight to the heart of Utah’s most heated controversy. As school districts across the state debate which books belong in children’s hands, the battle lines are drawn between parents who demand control over their children’s reading material and educators who fear that censorship will smother intellectual freedom. But behind the arguments about explicit content, gender identity, and family values, a bigger question looms: What happens when a society starts erasing the stories it finds uncomfortable?

    To access this post, you must purchase Full Access Membership.