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Want to tell Utah officials how to best address homelessness in the state? Here’s your chance.

The Utah Homelessness Council is accepting public comment on its newly-released plan to serve unhoused people across the state.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The area behind Rio Grande Depot at 500 W 300 S, where homeless individuals live in makeshift tents and shelters, is pictured on Dec. 16.

  | Dec. 20, 2022, 8:16 p.m.

If you have opinions on how Utah should address homelessness and better serve unhoused people, here’s a chance to make your voice heard.

Utah officials want public input after releasing a new draft this month of the state’s plan to address homelessness. The plan, which was created by the Utah Homelessness Council, outlines multiple goals the council created to address the state’s unhoused population.

The homelessness council report outlines four outcomes it wants to achieve by 2027. Those goals include creating or identifying over 500 housing opportunities, increasing support service interactions, reducing the number of people who become homeless every year and decreasing the number of vulnerable people who are homeless.

The draft plan and recommendations outline how exactly the state intends on achieving those goals within the next five years. Work on the plan began earlier this year when Homebase, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, began work with the state homelessness council and later presented the council with its findings, according to a news release from the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Comments can be submitted via an online Google Form. People may also email comments to UHCpubliccomment@utah.gov or mail them to the Office of Homeless Services at 140 E. 300 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84111.

Public comments will be accepted through Jan. 8, 2023.

The Utah Homelessness Council’s draft plan came out days before officials said Tuesday that recent cold temperatures contributed to the deaths of five unsheltered people. The same day, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall signed an emergency order to expand shelter space as the area’s subfreezing temperatures are likely to continue.

South Salt Lake Mayor Cherie Wood and Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini will also be adding shelter space, as South Salt Lake opened a men’s shelter earlier this year and Millcreek has a temporary winter shelter. In total, the expansion will add 95 beds.

Earlier in the week, around 10% of the Salt Lake Valley’s beds for unhoused people were available. State homelessness coordinator Wayne Niederhauser told The Salt Lake Tribune there could be a struggle to meet demand if there was a surge in people needing beds, but that hasn’t happened yet.