SALT LAKE CITY — Plans have been unveiled for a new Salt Lake City apartment complex to be built where an emergency shelter once stood, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
The new complex, called RIO, would include 210 apartments, along with commercial or retail space.
READ: Homeless crisis increasing in Salt Lake City; resource centers ineffective
Despite claiming the project will provide affordable housing to all renters, the site of the complex will certainly draw scorn.
The apartments will be built where The Road Home's emergency shelter was formerly located. Homeless advocates have long said that business will attempt to push homeless services out of the neighborhood.
The shelter was closed in 2019, with three new centers created to replace it. The new system put in place offers services such as meals, job assistance and health care.
Hamilton Partners, who will build the apartments, bought the property from the state for $6.75 million in December.
Those who support the new development brush aside gentrification concerns.
“It’ll bring vitality back to the community,” said Scott Howell of the Pioneer Park Coalition, a group that has fought for the neighborhood’s transformation. “I think it will be something that will help a struggling neighborhood and a struggling business community that has suffered for a long time.”
READ: The Road Home shelter being demolished
According to Building Salt Lake, developers, who did not accept government incentives for the project, hope to make about 60 units affordable to residents earning between 60% and 80% of the area’s median income.
