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A day after a proposed campus for the homeless drew sharp criticism at a public hearing, the Salt Lake Chamber killed the plan.
The chamber's Board of Governors voted Tuesday to abandon the $48 million proposal, which would have moved the majority of Salt Lake City's homeless service providers away from The Gateway shopping district onto a single west-side block.
The idea was doomed by the public's reaction and the failure of key agencies - the Road Home homeless shelter and Catholic Community Services - to embrace the concept publicly, chamber officials contend.
"The fact that the service providers didn't really step up and support this" played a major role in the decision, said Deborah Bayle Nielsen, president of the United Way of Salt Lake and a member of the chamber's board.
But the agencies didn't have the information they needed to give that support, argued Maggie St. Claire, executive director for Catholic Community Services.
"The reason we didn't: We still didn't have enough information to say 'yes,' '' she said.
The concept was unveiled in early September by the chamber and officials from Zions and Wells Fargo banks, without prior input from service providers. It called for services and facilities, such as transitional housing, a shelter, soup kitchen, employment services and health care, to be included on one block.
But from its launch the campus ran into opposition, including suspicions that business leaders were trying to remove the homeless from a district that has become one of the city's most popular places for shopping and entertainment.
"No matter what has been said, no matter what has been done, there's always a perception there's an ulterior motive," Nielsen said. "And I really don't think that was the case."
The relocation site was three city blocks away, the chamber points out.
Glenn Bailey, executive director of the Crossroads Urban Center, said the secrecy in developing the plan added to that perception.
"The process was flawed," he said. "People weren't involved."
The plan would have removed the Road Home and Catholic Community Services from their property across 200 South from The Gateway shopping district. In that space, mixed-income housing would have been built.
A portion of the profits would go to the agencies, to pay off relocation loans for their move to the block of 400 West and 500 South.
That block is owned by the Newspaper Agency Corp. - the company responsible for the printing and advertising for The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret Morning News - but it will be vacant next year.
On Monday, the plan was widely panned in a public meeting called by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. Often, the room packed with more than 100 people erupted into cheers as people spoke against the proposal.
The ultimate benefit of the chamber's proposal may be that business leaders and homeless service providers discussed solutions.
"I would hope the door isn't completely closed," St. Claire said. "We need to continue to talk. It very well may be there is a partnership here."
The shelter and Catholic Community Services support a continued discussion on whether a campus is feasible and whether it would the best option for serving the area's homeless, she said.
"This whole issue of homelessness is so complex. There is no one right way," St. Claire said.
The campus idea also ran counter to the "housing first" concept recently embraced by state and local agencies and service providers. Earlier this month, Utah released a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness that focused on creating permanent housing for the homeless, rather than continuing to rely on emergency shelter beds.
In Monday's meeting, executive director Matt Minkevitch said the Road Home's priority is building such housing. A bigger shelter would only be proposed if housing didn't eventually relieve pressure on the shelter, he said.
"Now we can go full steam ahead raising enough money to build 500 units," said Jack Gallivan, founder of the Crusade for the Homeless and former publisher of The Tribune. "We're well on our way to build the first 100 units."
Funding for the campus would have drawn on loans offered by the banks, plus state, federal and grant dollars. Some of the public and grant money is earmarked by the agencies for the permanent housing.
Still, some say a revival of the campus proposal wouldn't be a surprise. "These sort of things can be cyclical," Bailey said.
For that to happen, service providers would have to come to the chamber, said Chamber President Lane Beattie.
"We as a business community are no longer pursuing it," he said. "It's actually a shame."
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Tribune reporter Heather May contributed to this report.