The Utah Homeless Board has asked the state to locate three viable locations with a minimum of 30 neighboring acres for a new, 1,200-bed, low-barrier emergency shelter.
The proposal was added to the Utah Homeless Board agenda a few hours before the board’s meeting on Wednesday and passed, unanimously.
The Utah Legislature allocated $25 million in its 2023 session for a new 600- to 800-bed emergency homeless shelter. The board’s motion on Wednesday signaled movement toward an expansion of that plan, to create a “transformative, centralized campus model along the Wasatch Front.”
The three locations would be presented to the board by the Utah Office of Homeless Services by Dec. 15 of this year. Once a location has been approved by the board, a master plan must be presented by Jan. 15, 2025. The plan must outline the continued roles and responsibilities of the existing resource centers.
The state’s former largest emergency shelter, the Road Home, sheltered up to 1,100 individuals and was shut down in 2019, in favor of a “dispersed” shelter model, starting with three shelters whose capacity was capped at around 700 beds. Following the shelter’s closure, many expressed concerns that the shelters wouldn’t meet the need.