Former Mayor Rocky Anderson on Salt Lake City’s Rise in Homelessness And the Treatment of Homeless People By Current Salt Lake City Mayor Mendenhall Two-term former Mayor Rocky Anderson is running again for Mayor of Salt Lake City because he sees Salt Lake City in a state of moral decay and turmoil for residents, members of the homeless community, and businesses … [Read more...]
Flooding in Utah: Holladay is the Latest City to Declare a State of Emergency
Holladay, Utah leaders declared a state of emergency saying that the threat of flooding of the city is now an” imminent risk” as temperatures will be rising into the eighties in the coming days and over the weekend. Currently, the creek is running at 340 cfs (cubic feet per second). The river is expected to surpass 650 cfs by Sunday. Partial flooding will occur near river … [Read more...]
Flood Waters Are Rising Fast in Salt Lake City, Utah
The Great Salt Lake is Rising Fast: Should We Expect Big Flooding? According to Newsweek Magazine and other reliable sources, the Great Salt Lake has already risen this year by three feet, from an elevation standpoint that's 4,186.6 feet. This comes before the 30” of water (a new historic record) is now sequestered in up to 20 feet of snow that still rests atop the Wasatch … [Read more...]
Why is “Housing First” Homes to the Homeless Proving to Be A Failure in Utah?
Why are Salt Lake City’s public housing initiatives under the "Housing First" Banner proving to be such a dismal failure since 2016? Utah Stories has uncovered that even the most expensive units in Salt Lake City, such as the Magnolia Apartments, along with Palmer Court as well as all of the new homeless resources centers are proving to not help the homeless work on their … [Read more...]
Green Phoenix Farms Helps Homeless Women Get off the Streets
James Loomis is the Director of Green Phoenix Farms, which is a non-profit organization that assists homeless women in getting off the streets and into productive roles by growing fresh produce at their farm located in downtown Salt Lake City. Aside from being a fully functioning certified organic urban farm, the Green Phoenix Farm offers a job training program providing … [Read more...]
The Majority of Utah’s Unsheltered Want to Work. What’s preventing them?
70% of Utah's homeless tell Utah Stories in an informal survey that they would like to work. Ten percent tell us they could work very limited hours and twenty percent say they are currently unable to work. Restaurant owners are struggling to keep hours because of their desperate need for employees, some have even closed their doors for lack of finding prep cooks and … [Read more...]
The Untold Story of Downtown Salt Lake City’s Main Street
According to Dee Brewer of the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance, Downtown Salt Lake City's population will more than double in the next two years. This is based upon the timeline for completion of all of the apartments currently under construction. Are residents and SLC planners prepared for this growth? What are they doing to accommodate the huge influx of residents? What … [Read more...]
The Best and Worst of Salt Lake City According to Its Residents
“In the next two years, the population of downtown Salt Lake City will double,” says Dee Brewer, Executive Director of the Downtown Alliance. With dozens of new apartments rising, and a massive influx of residents, Salt Lake City is the seventh fastest growing city in the country, and Utah is the second fastest growing state. Today, we are finally witnessing quite a few … [Read more...]
Are Salt Lake Homeless Resource Centers a Failure for the Neighborhoods that Welcomed Them?
Back in 2016 amidst a surge in crime/lawlessness and homeless, both Salt Lake City and Utah state leaders devised a plan called Operation Rio Grande. State leaders on the “homeless task force” including Representative Greg Huges and then Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox along with former Mayor Jackie Biskupski all decided to close the Road Home, (1,000-bed homeless shelter) and … [Read more...]
The Utah Homeless Conundrum: Salt Lake’s Unsheltered Not Able to Find Shelter while Winter Is Approaching
There is a false dichotomy: downtown Salt Lake City residents cannot be both compassionate for the homeless and compassionate to business owners and residents. Downtown Salt Lake City October 26th —Witnessing first-hand the temperature drop below freezing along with Salt Lake City Police’s futile tug-of-war against the Salt Lake City homeless community was something akin to … [Read more...]