This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker recently announced progress in the Rio Grande District, where the homeless gather, since the police launched a campaign several weeks ago to crack down on crime.

In the past month, officers have increased jail bookings for crimes committed in the area by 27 percent and misdemeanor citations are up 55 percent, Becker said. More than $83,000 worth of drugs have been taken off the street, putting a dent in dealing. Overall, crime in the area has decreased by 20 percent.

Additionally, more than 160 swiped shopping carts have been returned to their owners, representing more than $56,000 in recovered stolen property.

Nice numbers, but some critics complain the effort is merely pushing the problem into other areas.

Barb Shelley​, co-founder of Highland High Area Neighborhood Watch​, says residents in the Sugar House-Highland area have seen a jump in homeless people converging on Fairmont and Sugar House parks, and burglaries in the area have skyrocketed.

Residents are more frequently finding homeless people sleeping in their garages or backyards, she said.

"We have never seen so many transients. These are the scary kind — the ones that look like heavy drug users with sores on their faces and arms and blackened teeth," Shelley said. "Local business owners tell me they have never seen so many transients on the street corners and in Sugar House Park."

Another factor bringing more transients to Sugar House is the S Line streetcar, she said.

City Councilwoman Lisa Ramsey Adams, who represents the area, said the S Line helped bump up the transient population a year ago, but it is getting better. She says the police officers have boosted their presence in Sugar House as well.

But it seems to be a never-ending problem. Here are two cases in point since the Rio Grande clampdown:

On July 20, a woman approached public-safety authorities at 300 S. Rio Grande St., stating that she had been raped the day before in nearby Pioneer Park. She appeared intoxicated to authorities and acknowledged staying drunk since the incident because she was afraid to report it.

A 7-year-old girl, who said she was the woman's daughter, was duct-taped to a tree by the perpetrator. The youngster witnessed the rape of her mother.

Salt Lake City police spokeswoman Christina Judd says the woman was transported to Salt Lake Regional Medical Center and a rape kit was undertaken. She said the matter is under investigation.

On July 28, about 50 feet south of the entrance to the men's shelter on the sidewalk at 235 S. 500 West, a middle-age woman, who had been sleeping on the crowded path was assaulted with a club and, she said, scalped. She had a broken right arm and a piece of her scalp was on the sidewalk, according to the police report.

Judd said the woman was transported to University Hospital and later released. She said the investigation has been hampered by the fact that the victim has been hard to locate to gather further evidence. prolly@sltrib.com —