SALT LAKE CITY — As thousands of NBA fans filed into Vivint Arena Sunday night, a crowd of Salt Lake City’s unsheltered were making themselves heard and seen.
“I wish they would actually treat us a little bit better and be more fair to us," said Robert West.
Police forced all the people living on the streets near the arena to camp out on the island behind the Rio Grande depot, he said.
“Now people are afraid that we’re all crowded, [we're] more of an easy target for the police to come in and abate everybody," said West.
Fights and fires broke out as the island became more crowded, said Takysha Essick.
“The more people came in, the more agitated most people were because they were getting closer and closer together," she said.
Dozens of unsheltered people felt Utah was trying to hide them, but State officials said the goal was to give everyone on the streets a safe way to enjoy All-Star weekend.
“We knew that there was going to be an additional 100,000 people in Salt Lake City," said Wayne Niederhauser, homeless coordinator for the State of Utah. "We just wanted our unsheltered friends to be off the street as much as possible and being able to get into a shelter situation.”
The state designated $40,000 toward opening a warming center for one day and night that went unspent when the standard shelters had enough capacity.
“There was no such offer during 4-degree weather, during 10-degree weather, during weather where the state announced, 'Do not go outside,'" said Kseniya Kniazeva, the executive director of the Nomad Alliance.
Another $7,000 went toward snacks for watch parties at the local shelters, but Kniazeva said none of the unsheltered who were forced to camp on the island even went.
“Nobody here at the island was invited," she said. "There were no outreach workers going and telling, inviting people to come in and get out of the cold, have some snacks, watch the game. There was no transportation available. Nobody knew about this.”
