SALT LAKE CITY – Wendy Garvin parks her car just off North Temple, next to the site of what will eventually become a new Major League Baseball stadium.
He gets out, opens the trunk of his car and begins handing out bottles of water, ice and cereal bars to people approaching from the street.
“You can drink as much water as you want!” Garvin told the crowd, putting ice into glasses to hand out.
“Thank you very much,” a man responded. “You are amazing.”
Garvin works with Unsheltered Utah, which helps those experiencing homelessness. She said she’s just trying to keep people alive in a heat wave. She told FOX 13 News on Friday that she is seeing more people living on the streets.
“We’re seeing larger encampments, more people on the streets, more evictions and a rapid increase in people on the streets, even though there are more shelters,” Garvin said.
Wayne Niederhauser, homelessness coordinator for the state of Utah, said 800 to 1,000 more shelter beds are needed. Shelters in the Salt Lake Valley have increased their capacity over the past few winters to get people out of the cold.
To alleviate the situation, Niederhauser confirmed to FOX 13 News that he is exploring the idea of building a shelter with 800 beds. If built, it would be the largest in the state.
“We need a place that has some square footage to accommodate what we need,” he said Friday. “And that’s hard to find. I think the best I can say today, because we can’t talk about specific sites and locations or cities, is that we’ll probably need at least 20 acres.”
Niederhauser has been exploring possible locations around the Salt Lake Valley. That’s how FOX 13 News learned about the idea of a “super shelter.” The Utah State Legislature has funded $25 million for a new shelter.
“We’re looking for a kind of campus where we would have other types of facilities,” he said. “We believe that having services like mental health centers and addiction services in one location would be cost-effective and more conducive to what we need for a greater number of people who would be protected.”
FOX 13 News contacted several communities who were unaware of the plans for such a large shelter, but were curious to see the plans and how it would affect them if it were located there. There are currently small shelters in Salt Lake City, South Salt Lake, West Valley City, Millcreek, Midvale and Sandy.
“There is a tremendous need for more supportive housing and emergency shelter services. We support Wayne’s efforts to locate and open additional services in Salt Lake County,” said Andrew Johnston, homeless policy and outreach director for Salt Lake City.
But Niederhauser and others are bracing for a lot of “not in my backyard” depending on where the shelter is located.
Gov. Spencer Cox, who has pushed for more funding for housing and homelessness at the Utah Capitol, gave a speech Thursday to homeless service providers and lawmakers at The Other Side Academy, where he called for compassion but also responsibility when it comes to dealing with homeless people. people.
“We’re about to get it right for the first time in our state’s history,” he said.
He reiterated his opposition to people camping in the streets and insisted that any funding would be responsible to taxpayers and have results. When asked by FOX 13 News about plans for a large shelter after the event, Governor Cox responded, “There are no plans currently, but there are plans for additional beds and we are working on what that will look like.”
Niederhauser admitted that they may not build a large shelter and continue with the model of smaller, dispersed shelters. However, he does believe that both approaches would be necessary to address homelessness.
“Systemically, we are going to need everything,” he said. “We’re going to need our dispersed shelters and a campus to meet the need.”
Garvin said he supported Niederhauser’s idea of a large shelter. Ideally, Garvin said, he wants people to have housing. But he argued there aren’t enough empty, affordable apartments to help everyone right now.
“A large shelter is a hard sell to the community, but my plea to everyone who sees this is that if we don’t build a shelter, all these people are going to live in their alleys and backyards,” he said. saying. “That’s not good for them and it’s not good for us.”
Unsheltered Utah said it welcomes volunteers or donations to help provide water and resources to those experiencing homelessness. Garvin said it currently costs her organization about $75 to buy enough water to keep people hydrated. To find out how to help, visit their website here.
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