SALT LAKE CITY — With just four days left in Utah’s legislative session, lawmakers are racing to pass a full slate of bills, including one measure set to move forward this week that could make an impact on those experiencing homelessness.
House Bill 596 would not only change how the winter warming shelters operate but also restructure funding to support homelessness services.
Unsheltered Utah, in partnership with churches in Salt Lake City, hosts warming shelters called Code Blue Movie Nights where individuals can come for a meal and a warm place to sleep. Code Blue is currently activated when temperatures drop to 18 degrees or lower, including wind chill for two hours or more during 24 hours.
The bill will raise that temperature threshold to 25 degrees, meaning the shelters could open on more nights each winter.
“Right now, Code Blue provisions are in place so we can operate our winter warming shelters. That threshold is 18 degrees or less with windchill, so this bill will change it to 25 degrees or less,” said Merinda Culter, Executive Director of Unsheltered Utah. “We know that 32 is freezing, but this is an emergency provision to help save lives.”
Culter said the bill also focuses on funding, allocating money from a cigarette sales tax to help. She said it will allow more consistent, non-lapsing funding instead of having to revisit the plan each year.
“We run a pretty tight ship; we don’t require a lot of budget,” Cutler said. “For us, it just means we can continue our operations, and we’ll get a little bit more funding because we’ll be open more nights with the 25-degree threshold. I think for other service providers, they’ll get access to more funding to open up more beds.”
After passing through committee on Monday, the bill headed to the full House, where Cutler is hopeful it will pass this week. If the bill passes through the full legislature, most of these provisions would go into effect on April 1.
