As debate continues over how Utah should aid its homeless residents, one stalwart supporter of those struggling to secure permanent housing is doubling down on the existing shelters that make up the backbone of the state’s system.
Gail Miller — chair of the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation — is committing $10 million for upkeep of the Salt Lake Valley’s homeless resource centers and looking to ensure they continue to serve as a “gateway.”
“Homelessness is not a problem that one organization can solve alone,” Miller said Thursday in remarks announcing the donation at the Salt Lake City center named for her. “It really requires the community united in purpose. It needs service providers, government partners, volunteers, donors, faith communities and neighbors all working together. It is our problem.”
The money will go to Shelter the Homeless, the nonprofit that owns the centers and rents them out for free to service providers. Utah leaders are actively reconsidering how the state addresses homelessness as the number of residents without shelter continues to rise. The centerpiece of those plans is a massive new 1,300-bed campus proposed for the west side.
One point of debate is the future of the shelters: homeless board Chair Randy Shumway has pitched turning them into transitional housing and Gov. Spencer Cox said they should be a step on the path to finding housing for homeless Utahns.
“I’ve always seen what’s being discussed by the Utah Homeless Services Board as an addition to the capacity,” Provo Republican Rep. Tyler Clancy, the state’s incoming homelessness coordinator, said. “... We need different resources for different steps of the way on that continuum of care. So, the homeless resource [centers] serve as a triage center. This is the front door of the system.”
The original homeless resource centers — two in Salt Lake City and one in South Salt Lake — were completed in 2019 as part of the state’s move away from the old, large downtown shelter. They offer the lowest-barrier shelter available to homeless Utahns most nights. The facilities consistently run at over 90% capacity.
The heavy use requires significant maintenance.
“As you can imagine there’s a lot of wear and tear on these buildings, a lot of upkeep,” Shelter the Homeless board chair and president Josh Romney said. “So, what we’ve been trying to do is create an endowment fund that we can use so that we can keep these buildings safe and secure and up to code in perpetuity.”
Romney explained that the donation would fund some small improvements soon at the Gail Miller Resource Center, like upgrades to bathrooms and fixtures, but the bulk of the money would be held as a part of a matching campaign that could fund larger repairs down the road. He hopes to raise $30 million in total for the three centers, including Miller’s contribution.
A joint news release from Shelter the Homeless and the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation after the announcement said funds would also help expand services and, specifically, food assistance.
“What your gift means to me is that we will not give up on these homeless resource centers that are working incredibly well for the vast majority of people that enter their doors,” Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall told Miller. “This is a system that is working well and that can work even better. We know we need more beds of all different sorts.”
Last year, about 75% of people who entered an emergency shelter in Utah stayed less than three months there.
Cox’s proposed budget for the upcoming general legislative session proposes allocating $20 million of ongoing funding to help people who cycle repeatedly through the state’s services system. It also includes $25 million in funding for the construction of the large homeless campus.