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There is new momentum to improve homeless services and housing availability in Salt Lake City, but dramatic change usually isn't easy, and it's not always pretty.

The latest hiccup in an evolving process to create new "permanent supportive" housing for chronically homeless people came late Friday when Mayor Ralph Becker and City Councilman James Rogers issued a joint statement criticizing the Pioneer Park Coalition for moving unilaterally to fund a housing project on the west side of the city.

On Monday, a spokesman for the coalition, a group of businesses and community members, called the flap a "misunderstanding."

But it's not the first such miscommunication. Earlier, Becker had hastily created the Homeless Services Site Evaluation Commission when it became apparent that the Pioneer Park Coalition was planning such an evaluation on its own. The coalition's stated goal is to improve the neighborhood around the park for residents, businesses and the homeless population.

Among other things, the mayor's evaluation commission will determine whether The Road Home shelter and other services should remain in the Rio Grande district near Pioneer Park or be moved elsewhere.

Rogers, whose District 1 encompasses the Rose Park and Fairpark neighborhoods, said the Pioneer Park Coalition's identification of two west-side parcels for the housing project does not reflect good planning.

Further, he said, he doesn't want The Road Home and other housing services moved to the west side without discussion.

"From day one, I have had my back against the wall," he said Monday. "Because it's been, 'west side, west side, west side.' "

Last week, the Pioneer Park Coalition — comprised of some 200 members from the private and public sectors — made a presentation to the Utah Legislature's Social Services Appropriations Committee and identified parcels at 1528 W. North Temple and 1849 W. North Temple as sites for permanent supportive housing.

The coalition is seeking $1 million from the state to supplement $3.4 million in other funding to build the 100-unit project.

But the statement from Becker and Rogers maintained the Pioneer Park Coalition was out of step with what should be a public process: "As we work together, locations to be considered for permanent supportive housing must go through a site-selection process in cooperation with residents and businesses, and be consistent with local ordinances and housing policies."

Councilman Kyle LaMalfa, whose District 2 includes the west-side communities of Poplar Grove and Glendale, said he was "mystified" by the coalition's move to select a housing site without involvement from Salt Lake City.

"This topic is a sensitive one," he said, referring to moving services westward. "They are not acting in good faith by going around the process they agreed with the city to work through."

Scott Howell, a former state senator who heads the Pioneer Park Coalition, said Monday that his group would be sensitive to various communities in Salt Lake City and seeks to work with City Hall on planning and zoning parameters.

"What we have said is, we will let the [public] process happen," he said. "Our goal is to raise the money, rather than dictate where [the housing project] will go."

Last summer, coalition members met with service providers to discuss how to improve conditions for homeless people in Salt Lake City, Howell said.

They came away with an understanding that people in the shelter and permanent supportive housing should have access to transportation and other basic needs, such as medical care and groceries.

Among the parcels they identified, he said, were those on North Temple because they were along a TRAX line and near other services along the boulevard.

"In our presentation for the appropriations committee, we listed those sites," he said. "But there are many, many others. We think there was a misunderstanding."

Howell said the coalition is seeking the funding through the Olene Walker Trust Fund. "That process ensures it will be administered fairly."

Beyond housing for the homeless, the City Council has been developing a more comprehensive affordable-housing approach that would disperse low-income housing throughout the city, rather than continuing to concentrate it on the west side.