A week after auditors for the Legislature released a report that found evidence of routine drug use inside two homeless facilities downtown and other security issues, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams called for quick changes.
During a tense interaction between McAdams and Matt Minkevitch, director of The Road Home, which runs three shelters in Salt Lake County, the mayor repeated his belief from last week that the shelter’s response to the audit has been insufficient, and he called for action by the group’s board.
“The response needs to be swift; it needs to be significant,” McAdams said Wednesday, before suggesting it’s been difficult to get improvements at the shelter in the two years since improving homeless services became a top political issue in the state. “It’s been pulling teeth to get some of these changes made.”
The fallout from the audit’s release highlights the difficult path ahead for the parties involved at The Road Home: What happens when homeless residents with an addiction try to enter a shelter with drugs?
The question is among several at the center of the effort to improve homeless services after widespread and open drug use outside the shelter boiled over and led to a massive statewide push for improvement.
The audit found some staff at The Road Home felt it may be better to allow some drug use by homeless residents suffering from addiction rather than to reject them at the door and send them onto the street.
Shelter the Homeless is the nonprofit overseeing the construction of three new shelters by next year. Josh Romney, one of the group’s board members, said at a meeting Wednesday there are “two schools of thought” about how the shelter’s staff should react upon finding drugs.
“You can really have a zero tolerance,” which he said means no drugs or other rule-breaking on-site. “In a lot of ways, it makes a lot of sense.”
“At the same time, there’s another philosophy,” he said. “We have to be compassionate.”
The board, along with the board of The Road Home, will now work to find out what level of tolerance best serves Utah’s homeless and greater public.
McAdams said he’d been “disappointed” with The Road Home and Minkevitch’s response to the audit. Minkevitch pointed out his nonprofit is serving a complex group of people. More people, Minkevitch said Wednesday, are showing up at the shelter with oxygen tanks and other serious health conditions.
That answer didn’t appease McAdams, either.
“The problem isn’t oxygen tanks at the shelter,” McAdams responded. “Sure, we need health care for people in need, but that’s not what we’re talking about.”
“There are real issues that need to be addressed,” he said. “It’s crime, violence, substance abuse. ...I’m tired of talking about it.”
Auditors found that some people avoid the shelter altogether for fear of the conduct that happens inside. Some fear a relapse if they go to the shelter.
McAdams suggested the boards and staff undergo a balancing act to figure out what’s best for the people who need an emergency place to stay without fear of the drugs being available inside.
“Zero tolerance would have some negative impacts,” McAdams said after the meeting. “There’s middle ground. It’s not absolute tolerance versus zero tolerance.”
The groups also are working to improve coordination between homeless providers and treatment centers to limit overlap in services and to help direct homeless residents to the right resources.
Some legislators last week suggested the state look at models elsewhere where shelters enforce a strict set of rules that keep drugs out.
“My reaction was kind of like, ‘Yes, and where do you think they go?’” said Harris Simmons, also on the Shelter the Homeless board.
To this point, The Road Home has operated a shelter downtown that tries to eliminate as many barriers as possible for people seeking to stay there. That means homeless residents don’t have to undergo treatment or make other promises to get a place to stay for the night.
The Road Home board and staff said it would immediately examine its policies and how strictly staff adhere to them. Greg Johnson, president-elect of The Road Home board, said he needed to speak to McAdams about what swift and significant changes he had in mind.
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