This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In 2012, the American Planning Association declared Salt Lake City's Sugar House neighborhood, Fairmont, as one of America's Great Neighborhoods. The award was given to the area for planning excellence, history, architecture and community engagement. Salt Lake City seems to have ignored almost everything that makes the neighborhood special and award winning.
Salt Lake City's mayor and council surprised almost everyone in the Sugar House neighborhood by spending $7 million for a property with an assessed value of $2.8 million right next to a quiet and inviting single family home neighborhood. The irony in that decision flies in the face of the America's Great Neighborhoods' language that described the neighborhood as having "a decades-long tradition of citizens being engaged in local planning."
When the homeowners and businesses were told about the plan to place a homeless shelter next to their homes, the news was given to them by reporters, not by city elected officials or staff. That disrespect shown to the neighborhood was compounded by the statements of the mayor and council that the neighborhood would not be negatively impacted. But the only example that the city provided for a homeless resource center was the Road Home in the Rio Grande area.
The city has explained that the residents adjacent to the facility would not see drug dealers or crime around the new homeless resource centers because the residents would not be lined up outside the facilities. But, as many service providers have indicated, removing drugs from homeless residents is difficult, if not impossible. The city has been unable to remove the drug dealers from around the Rio Grande area despite a significant police presence. According to realtor.com, homes near homeless shelters decrease in value 12.7 percent. The 80 violent crime incidents near the YWCA in the last three months don't seem to bother anyone in the city. There were 11 in the same time period in a larger area around Sugar House.
That is just one of the concerns of the neighbors of the proposed homeless facility. Many other homeowners believe that they have lost tens of thousands of dollars of equity and value in their homes. Desperate homeowners and businesses have discussed lawsuits and taking their complaints to the Legislature. Despite the city paying a premium for the Sugar House property, the neighborhood homes and businesses have lost much more in value due to this decision. Salt Lake City has said that they are undertaking a study of the equity loss, but there is no plan to compensate the adjacent neighbors.
After years of planning to use the Sugar House Streetcar to help develop the neighborhood into a more inviting and walkable neighborhood, the city seems to have thrown the recently approved Sugar House Streetcar Corridor Plan out the window. One has to wonder where a homeless shelter sits in a more inviting and walkable mixed-use neighborhood. One of the City Council members agreed that "persuading a neighborhood to accept a shelter will be tough," remembering the backlash against the Inn Between homeless hospice. In addition, there now seems to be a fight in the council about what was planned for the Sugar House site. Originally, the council assumed that the women and children's shelter would be at the Sugar House facility, but after the backlash two of the council members indicated that they were against a homeless resource center next to the adjacent single family home neighborhood.
In the America's Great Neighborhood Award, under Community Engagement, the award listed "Extensive public participation; for 35 years citizens have participated in every planning process affecting the neighborhood."
The homeless site selection process ignored the implied promise that this award-winning neighborhood would continue to be inviting. Sugar House homeowners and businesses deserve protection of one of America's Great Neighborhoods. A homeless shelter in a quiet single family home neighborhood should be the last thing a city should consider.
The homeless sites plan should drop the Sugar House location and the city should save its $7 million for better uses.
Christopher Sveiven lives in Sugar House and will soon join the Sugar House Community Council.