SALT LAKE CITY — Plans for a controversial new homeless shelter campus may have to wait while state homelessness officials pursue other needs.
During a budget presentation on Thursday for $50 million in homeless services funding, the state's interim homelessness coordinator suggested the campus may be a few years away while they seek to fund programs helping high-risk populations.
"We're focusing on high-utilizers, the population that cycles in and out of multiple programs and systems, that don’t have a place where they can go to receive that sort of coordinated care," Nick Coleman, the interim homelessness coordinator, told FOX 13 News. "We know we can pull this lever now and be able to start a program up and eventually form the basis for any future work we’ve got."
It does not mean the 16-acre shelter campus planned for Salt Lake City's Northpointe neighborhood has been shelved. But Coleman said the land has not yet been acquired and state agencies can take the funding and apply it toward targeting a population that needs significant care and services.
Utah just built a new prison and now the legislature wants to expand it:
The shelter itself is expected to cost well over $50 million and Utah's Capitol Hill is in the midst of a bleak budget year. State agencies across the board are exploring funding cuts as much as 5%.
The shelter has drawn heated protest with community groups branding it a "mega-shelter" and accusing state leaders of trying to make unsheltered people go away. Governor Spencer Cox and Republican legislative leaders have been supportive of the project, arguing that current shelter systems aren't working and it can provide a lof of resources in one place.
"Any construction is going to have through the natural permitting and building process, which takes time," Coleman said. "So I just want to be really clear, we’re going to start on something as soon as we possibly can."
