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SALT LAKE CITY — As part of efforts to end the chaos in Salt Lake City's Rio Grande area near The Road Home shelter, Mayor Ben McAdams is asking for the state liquor store near the shelter to be moved.
The mayor on Tuesday sent a letter to Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission Chairman John T. Nielson requesting him to consider the relocation of the liquor store located at 205 W. 400 South.
"While the reasons for being homeless vary from losing employment to mental illness and substance abuse, I believe we can do better by all individuals and families experiencing homelessness and by the Salt Lake County taxpayers," the mayor wrote in the letter.
The call comes a few weeks after McAdams and other county leaders rallied to call on Salt Lake City to consider more aggressive measures to control the Rio Grande area, worried that city leaders' current efforts to redesign the 500 West median and install more security cameras wouldn't be enough.
Relocating the liquor store was one of the county's recommendations.
For more than two years, McAdams has led the Collective Impact Steering Committee on Homelessness, a multi-stakeholder focus group working toward reforms of the county's homeless service system.
As part of those reforms, city, county, and state leaders have committed to closing The Road Home shelter downtown by June 2019, when three new homeless resource centers are scheduled to open.
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Road Home shelter to close when homeless resource centers open
Less than 24 hours before announcing where four new homeless shelters will stand, Salt Lake City officials confirmed that The Road Home downtown will be shutting its doors.The Rio Grande neighborhood remains a hotbed for street-side camping, drug dealing and other crime.
McAdams said the homelessness crisis has been "especially hard" for downtown Salt Lake, where there's been a "significant public safety crisis stemming from criminal activity" and drug trade. That's why, the mayor said, city and county leaders "need to do a better job collectively" to keep the neighborhood safe.
"Based on over two years of work, our partnership of stakeholders believe that (relocating the liquor store) would help reduce the flow of alcoholic beverages into the neighborhood surrounding the Rio Grande shelter," McAdams said. "In combination with other measures being undertaken at the state, county and city level and by the private sector, this will significantly improve public safety and our ability to serve vulnerable populations in Salt Lake City."
We could consider moving it, we just have to have a new location first.
–Terry Wood, DABC
McAdams expressed hopes that county and DABC leaders could "connect soon" to discuss the possible relocation of the liquor store.
Terry Wood, spokesman for DABC, said later Tuesday that the relocation of the downtown liquor store "is certainly something we've considered," but some tricky details would have to be sorted out first.
Wood pointed out at the 400 South store is one of the state's top five profitable stores.
"It's not just the homeless that shops there," Wood said, noting that tourists, residents and local restaurants and clubs buy their liquor from that store.
Still, Wood said, DABC officials are open to having that conversation.
"We could consider moving it, we just have to have a new location first," he said.
Salt Lake City officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday night.
