This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The House voted Tuesday for a bill seeking $9 million to help shelters for the homeless.
HB436 passed on a 72-0 vote, and now goes to the Senate.
Instead of sending all the homeless in Salt Lake County to the Road Home shelter in Salt Lake City and a winter overflow in Midvale, the proposal seeks to build more and smaller shelters in other neighborhoods.
Rep. Francis Gibson, R-Mapleton, the bill's sponsor, said the 900 to 1,200 people in the Road Home on some nights "is too big of a concentration in one place." He said the overcrowding fails to help with transition to independent living.
Gibson said he hopes $20 million in state money will eventually be raised for the effort. He said money will be used statewide, and not just in Salt Lake County.
A task force studying homelessness last year recommended the approach of building more facilities for the homeless in more neighborhoods.
— Lee Davidson