The Tribune’s Editorial Board’s “option” to a sanctioned homeless camp was so simple it was explained in two sentences.
First make “deals with developers.” The limited undeveloped land in Salt Lake County is privately owned and the “developers” can make millions developing high end properties. And with housing costs exploding (per The Tribune’s Andy Larsen), there are not enough homes for people who are working. Where and how are you going to make these “deals with developers.”
Second, support the homeless with “case managers.” This is a good idea but, if a case manager can give hands-on support at 8 hours per homeless person per week they can “manage” 5 people. It is estimated there are 3,000 homeless people in Utah, so we will need 600 case managers.
Who is going to find, train, certify and pay these 600 new employees?
The idea of a sanctioned homeless camp may not be perfect, but it is better than the current situation. It is easy to say “No” to this idea, but it is much harder to explain in detail a workable, not dream-able solution.
Please do better next time, Tribune Editorial Board.
Bob Gilchrist, Millcreek
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