Tribune Editorial: Homeless campus will work only if services, security and transportation are provided

The site finally selected for Utah’s new homeless services campus will certainly be out of sight.

But if it also falls out of mind, it will fail, at great cost to the taxpayers, as well as to the many human beings who desperately needed its help. And then the rest of us will have nothing to do but watch as lost souls and unsanitary encampments once again populate our streets, parks and riverbanks.

After nearly a year of searching, the Utah Office of Homeless Services announced Wednesday that it had selected a 16-acre parcel of land owned by Salt Lake City at 2520 N. 2200 West. That’s in an area that has been morphing from rural to industrial, hard by I-215 and not far from Salt Lake International Airport.

The plan had been for the facility to be up and running by this October. But the site selection alone —nobody wanted such a facility in their neighborhood— proved such a monumental task that it will now not be able to serve homeless people until 2027 at best.

The homeless services office and its director, former state Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, had reasonably come to the conclusion that the three small homeless service centers built to replace the old Road Home shelter in the downtown Rio Grande neighborhood were not equal to the task. That what is needed was a comprehensive facility, providing not only shelter for up to 1,300 people at a time but also ongoing services such as physical and mental health, substance abuse detox and rehab, job counseling and links to employment opportunities.

All those services will need to be present on the campus because the location is so far removed from any other places they might be available. Google Maps indicates the new location is an hour’s walk away from the nearest UTA bus stop.

The plan includes some kind of regular shuttle bus service into the city, as well as a budget for security on-site and nearby. All of that will be expensive, and absolutely necessary.

If the campus is perceived by its target audience as inaccessible, and by both those in need of services and those with nearby properties to be a magnet for drug dealing, vandalism and other crimes, it will be an expensive mistake.

There is reason to hope that the decision-makers in Utah grasp that.

Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said, “To succeed, this new campus must offer more than just shelter; it must deliver real accountability through treatment, recovery, and long-term stability, or it will fail like every half-measure before it.”

“If done correctly,” Schultz said, “this transformative campus has the opportunity to improve public safety, clean up our cities, and change lives.”

That’s a big “if.”

But there is reason to hope that state and local officials, members of the Homeless Services Board, other service providers and Utah’s large and generous philanthropic community are united in their commitment to facing homelessness not just with roofs and cots but also with ongoing, round-the-clock services that address the reasons why so many of our neighbors find themselves in such a state and so difficult to extricate themselves from it.

A key breakthrough here has been the realization that the problem is too big for any one city to face and that, instead of scoring political points by blaming Salt Lake City or other municipalities, the state’s resources had to be brought to bear.

Even though the Legislature has already set aside $23 million for construction of the project, Niederhauser estimates the cost of the infrastructure alone will be at least $75 million. Annual operating costs may run $34 million or more.

The state is going to have to do a better job of funding these operations than it has in the past. Private philanthropy is standing by to help, but only if those in a position to give feel comfortable that their money will be going to something that works.

The money the state will be spending may seem like a lot, but it also promises to lift large burdens from the city’s public safety operations, hospital emergency rooms and other public services.

A properly run homeless services campus won’t be nearly as much fun as a new hockey arena or Major League Baseball stadium. But it is time to build one — and spend the money necessary to keep it running properly.

Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.