Utah still gets the math wrong. Building a larger homeless shelter does not solve homelessness — affordable housing does.
The Legislature was applauded for approving funds to build the “largest shelter the state has seen in years.” But wasn’t the original largest shelter torn down in 2019 and “warehousing” homeless people denounced? Prompting Operation Rio Grande and our current shelter situation?
The “solution” to the “basic math problem” is not new. Not to mention, funds for existing homeless service and housing programs were not increased this past Legislature (yay, sports!). How will people escape homelessness if there is no funding to do so? Also, emergency shelters are not cheap. The cost to operate and maintain a “first tier” shelter for 80 individuals a night runs between $850,000 - $3,112,981 a year according to the 2023 Office of Homeless Services report.
Homelessness in Utah has been steadily increasing due to unaffordable housing. The National Low Income Housing Coalition found that Utahns must make $24.93 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Affordable housing is short by 43,493 units and 62,625 Utah residents are extremely low income, yet rents are the highest they have ever been.
Who is doing the math here? Because it’s clearly the wrong math.
If the source of homelessness is due to unaffordable housing, why aren’t there efforts or policies for rent control or more rental assistance? Why not keep people in their homes before ever needing to step foot in an emergency shelter?
In the same Office of Homeless Services report, 8,637 people experienced first-time homelessness in 2022. The worst part about that number is that it’s families and elderly folk that drastically increased. That’s a lot of kids without homes. That’s a lot of grandparents and senior citizens spending their golden years in shelters or on the streets.
Why are Utah legislators revisiting the warehouse method they claimed to abolish?
The math doesn’t add up.
Mandy Cheang, Cottonwood Heights
