Westside neighbors question homeless campus location choice

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — Westside neighbors packed the Salt Lake County Library Riverside Branch Wednesday for a quicky organized public meeting about the new homeless campus proposal slated for their neighborhood.

Despite the push to get leaders in the room the day this agreement was announced, neighbors feel like they were left in the dark. Patty Jensen, resident in the 2200 W neighborhood, expressed, “Too late. They should have looked into the security issues, the concerns, before they announced the site.”

Safety was a top concern for most in attendance. People voiced concerns about using the waterways for farming, checking animals and barns late at night, and safety for children working their farms. But another prevailing question: Why is it always the Westside? Neighbors and leaders both expressed frustration that projects like these seem to always target their neighborhoods, using the movement of the state correctional facility as an example.

Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake County, detailed, “The West Side is not a ‘not in my backyard’ community, but they are ‘not only in my backyard’ community. They don’t mind shouldering/ taking on this burden to do their part but they’re asking the question, ‘who else is going to take on the burden?'”

Another neighbor, Dennis Bangerter, added, “We just wonder why this area, one little 17 acre area out of the hundreds of acres that are there for a shelter in the middle of a business park basically. And a few homeowners.”

Salt Lake City Councilmember Victoria Petro could be seen getting emotional hearing her constituents’ concerns throughout the night. She expressed, “Feeling voiceless is a really, really highly emotional thing for me, and knowing that my neighbors and constituents feel even more voiceless, that’s terrifying to me.”

As for safety concerns Petro added, “The truest objection is that there is no way to guarantee that either the people who will live inside the campus or the people who live outside the campus or the businesses surrounding the campus have any reasonable metric of safety, protection or success.”

It’s no secret that the state and Salt Lake City have gone back and forth with each other over the issue of homelessness and public safety. That discourse has led to concerns in the crowd over whether this project and all of its proposed services will get the support and funding it needs to succeed.

Resident David Galvan said, “The state representatives all go, ‘Well Salt Lake City.. slap, slap, slap. Get your act together or I will take over.’ I mean it’s come up this year!”

Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla also emphasized the need for a project like this to get proper funding by adding, “From the legislature I look at my colleagues and say, ‘How are we going to fund this?’ Because a program at this level that doesn’t get funded correctly will be really unfortunate. It will not be productive. And it’s actually, you know, basically failing if we don’t get the adequate funding.”

In a statement, House Speaker Mike Schultz highlighted the need for accountability in this project. His full statement reads:

We’re grateful to State Homeless Coordinator Wayne Niederhauser for his exhaustive efforts to secure land in Salt Lake City for a centralized campus that will serve as a hub for homeless services. 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, this transformative campus has the opportunity to improve public safety, clean up our cities, and change lives. We will work with the Utah Homeless Services Board to take full advantage of President Trump’s recent executive order – which squarely aligns federal agencies with Utah’s focus on public safety, support, and accountability – including exploring opportunities to reprioritize existing resources to improve public safety and achieve lasting outcomes.”

Homeless services said input is not done for this project and expects multiple meetings ahead for community feedback. They set up a website to keep people up to date.

Councilmember Petro vowed her input would continue as well. Her plan as described by her, “To annoy a lot of people and probably burn a lot of political capital.”