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After millions spent on homelessness, Utah lawmakers have a question: ‘Did we get what we paid for?’

Legislators are looking for an audit of service providers and effectiveness of state spending in recent years.

(Steve Griffin | Tribune file photo) Law enforcement officers from several agencies increase their presence in the Rio Grand homeless area in Salt Lake City Monday August 14, 2017.


Utah policymakers are going all in on homelessness services as a massive collective of public and private groups works to improve the way services are delivered.

Last month, the Legislature got a handle on how much services like shelters and policing cost taxpayers. But lawmakers have a question they want answered as the state moves closer to closing down the 1,100-bed shelter in downtown Salt Lake City in June 2019.

“Did we get what we paid for?” asked Sen. Jacob Anderegg, the Lehi Republican who leads a committee that is calling for a performance audit of all homeless services. “Was there any analysis on how effective the money was spent in some of these areas?”

A wide group of public agencies this summer started a two-year effort to cut crime and improve homeless services before The Road Home in the Rio Grande neighborhood is closed and three new, scattered shelters are opened. The work, dubbed Operation Rio Grande, will cost an estimated $67 million.

But the Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee this week made clear it wanted the state to look at how effectively homeless service providers spent millions of dollars in public funding in recent years.

At the tail end of a Wednesday hearing, Anderegg raised allegations that he’d heard there were “major problems” at The Road Home shelter. He didn’t elaborate on what those problems were and didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday.

In a written statement, Matt Minkevitch, executive director of The Road Home, called Anderegg’s comment baseless “hearsay.”

“We are concerned about the difficulty people in shelter are experiencing as they attempt to find housing that is affordable,” said Minkevitch. “And frankly, we are concerned that an errant comment, based on hearsay as its foundation, triggers speculation and reputation damage to a trusted organization that has served its community with competence and devotion.”

The committee didn’t, however, focus only on The Road Home and instead asked the state to undertake an audit of homeless services generally.

Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, said she wanted to pull back from focusing only on the state’s largest shelter provider.

“I was kind of concerned about where the direction of the discussion is going,” she said on Thursday. “Everything is so symbiotic we really can’t look at one piece of it without understanding performance and utilization of state and federal funds if you’re not looking at how the other service providers integrate.”

An audit subcommittee led by top legislators would have to vote to approve the audit and make it a priority. A spokeswoman for House Speaker Greg Hughes indicated that’s likely to happen.

Hughes “is very interested in having a thorough examination of the performance, operations, safety and cleanliness of The Road Home and expects that to begin in the very near future as part of Operation Rio Grande,” said Aundrea Peterson, spokeswoman for House Republicans.

Anderegg’s request for an audit came after his committee was briefed on how much it costs to provide homeless services in Utah. Financial auditors found the entire system – including indirect spending like policing and direct spending like shelters – cost more than $81 million in the 2016 fiscal year, up from $63.6 million two years earlier.

The financial audit showed The Road Home was among the top recipients of spending by the city and county. Others that received over $100,000 included Catholic Community Services, which operates a day center and dining hall, Volunteers of America and Advantage Services.

The work to reform homeless services follows years of study and planning led by Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, whose staff worked to try and get providers to work together and minimize overlap.

But the Legislature hasn’t ordered an audit in recent memory, according to John Schaff, the legislative auditor general.

“This would definitely be the first time that I’m aware of,” Schaff said, “I’ve been with the office for 40 years.”