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SALT LAKE CITY — With voice trembling, Gail Miller, a Utah business giant and owner of the Utah Jazz, told a crowd of local officials and homelessness leaders of how she knows the struggle of families who have loved ones in the throes of drug addiction.
Miller described that for the last three years, she's been trying to help a relative who has been homeless and "experienced firsthand" the difficulty of finding him a place to recover.
About a month ago, she said, he "took refuge in a dumpster to sleep." When the dumpster was emptied into a garbage truck, he was "crushed."
But now, she said he's recovering in a mental health and addiction treatment center where he's getting the help he needs.
"But for three years, we have been trying unsuccessfully to get him into a system where he can recover," Miller said. "It's not because we haven't tried. It isn't because we don't have a community that works tirelessly to help homeless people. It's because these people have such a difficult recovery that they almost need to be taken by the hand and shown how to do what they need to do."
Miller spoke while standing in front of the nearly completed 200-bed men's and women's homeless resource center being built in Salt Lake City at 242 W. Paramount Ave. — a building that on Thursday was named after her.
Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox and representatives of Shelter the Homeless, the owner of the three new homeless resource centers nearing completion later this year, made the announcement at the center's construction site, where they unveiled a rendering of the future Gail Miller Resource Center.
Miller has been one of the biggest backers of the Utah's overhaul of its homeless resource system, meant to provide a more comprehensive network of support for people experiencing homelessness, drug addiction and mental health illness.
She last year kicked off a campaign urging Utahns to donate to help fund the resource centers by pledging to match dollar-for-dollar up to $10 million of donations, intended to spur generosity from other Utahns for a potential total of $20 million.
"We have been overwhelmed by the dedication, leadership and selflessness of Gail Miller and her family in working to address the issue of homelessness in our community for many years," Harris Simmons, Shelter the Homeless board president, said in a prepared statement. "This is the least we could do to recognize these tireless efforts."
Simmons added that Miller "didn't ask for this honor."
"In fact, it took a lot of convincing to get Gail to agree to accept our gratitude and lend her name to this important mission," he said.
Preston Cochrane, executive director of Shelter the Homeless, offered Miller a bouquet of flowers, telling her they "give you our love and express our deep appreciation of all you have done for our state."
Miller, after accepting the honor, said: "The important thing here is not that a name is being put on a building. It's what the building represents.
"And this building screams dignity," Miller said. "It means that those who are suffering can find a place to restore their dignity and reclaim their lives and become a part of society in a meaningful way."
Miller said she "had to be talked into" the namesake "because there are a lot more people more worthy, but she's been told "having my name on there gives hope to a lot of people" and "if that's what it means, I'm happy to do it."
Miller said her relative is "not an immediate family member" but "one that I feel responsible for."
Her story shows that no matter what walk of life they come from, homelessness and drug addiction can be a struggle for any family.
"I think in reality we all do," she said. "I think those of us who will admit it can face it easier, while those of us who are a little bit more private or ashamed of it or fearful of what people will think, they don't need to be. Because we're all dealing with something."
She said her hope is that once the state's homeless system is overhauled, the homeless resource centers will not just "warehouse people, but help people to find the resources they need to step out of homelessness."
Cox said the homeless resource centers are aimed at "changing the way that we deliver services to the people who need it the most." In the years of planning, Cox said Miller was one of the "architects" — not of the buildings — but of the new system. She has sat on several committees and commissions devoted to designing the new system.
"With all of the other incredible things that are happening in business and community service, she has been engaged in the effort to reduce homelessness here in the state of Utah as much as anyone else, so it's very fitting that this edifice will be named after her," Cox said.
The center named after Miller is the second to be given a namesake. The first, the 200-bed women's resource center at 131 E. 700 South, was named the Geraldine E. King Resource Center after the single mother to seven children, including Pat King. The former president of a steel fabrication firm donated $4 million to the center to honor his late mother, who prioritized charity even when struggling to make her own ends meet.
The three new homeless resource centers were funded and sited by state, county and city leaders in a yearslong process to revamp the state's homeless system and shut down the Road Home's downtown shelter. The Road Home will continue operating its Midvale shelter, as well as the largest resource center now being constructed in South Salt Lake.
While the two 200-bed shelters in Salt Lake City are on schedule to be completed around the end of June, the 300-bed men's shelter in South Salt Lake is behind schedule and isn't slated to be completed until late summer. Only once the South Salt Lake center is open and operating will the Road Home's downtown shelter shutter.
As of this week, Shelter the Homeless had raised $4.6 million of the $10 million goal for the Miller match. Miller urged more Utahns to donate.
"It doesn't take a lot," she said. "If everybody gave $5, we'd soon be there."
Donations can be given at homelessutah.org.
