Davis County leaders eye creation of homeless shelter; talk draws backlash from some

Davis County Commissioner Lorene Kamalu discusses efforts of a task force formed to help address homelessness at a Kaysville City Council meeting on March 21.

Davis County Commissioner Lorene Kamalu discusses efforts of a task force formed to help address homelessness at a Kaysville City Council meeting on March 21. (Kaysville City Council)


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KAYSVILLE — Leaders across Davis County are looking into developing a homeless shelter in response to state legislation requiring action on the issue, and the talk is generating heat, at least in Kaysville.

The process remains in the investigatory phase due to lack of funding and identification of a suitable site for the "community resource center," as the officials dub it. But the notion of locating a facility in Kaysville, at least, has already generated controversy and strong opposition. The Davis County Winter Overflow Task Force — the body spearheading the homeless shelter discussion — has also pondered sites in Clearfield and Sunset.

The topic has been focus of on-and-off public debate, and when it came up at a Kaysville City Council meeting last week, Mayor Tamara Tran said there is "no way in hell" that she would allow a shelter in the city. "We will not stand for it. Kaysville is not the right location for this for all the data-driven reasons," said Tran, a member of the task force.

City Councilman John Adams — while cognizant of the need for services to aid the homeless — offered similarly strong sentiments. Both he and Tran indicated that Kaysville lacks a site conducive to shelter development.

"We're not building a homeless shelter in Kaysville," Adams said during a discussion on the issue at the March 21, City Council meeting. "It'll be a cold day in hell before I let one come here, and I think most of (the) council feels this way."

Regardless, the task force — a body created per state law that's made up of mayors from seven Davis County cities and Davis County Commissioner Lorene Kamalu — has determined a facility of some sort is needed. Kamalu addressed the Kaysville City Council on the issue at the March 21, meeting and also spoke to KSL.com.

Without a dedicated homeless shelter in Davis County, those in need sometimes go to shelters in neighboring Weber or Salt Lake counties, she said.

"Those are our own people. Do we want them to start creating camps?" Kamalu said. In fact, last year a homeless tent encampment took shape in Layton in a remote area off King Street near the FrontRunner tracks. Police disbanded it last December, she said, but she warns the issue isn't likely to go away, noting, in particular, rising home costs.

"To ignore or deny (the issue) is probably to have the problem get worse," she said. Point-in-time homeless counts, conducted each January across the state, have typically put the homeless population in Davis County at around 50. But other data — Davis School District counts of homeless students and the roster of Davis County residents traveling to shelters in other counties — indicates the problem is more severe.

The task force, made up of Kamalu and the mayors of Bountiful, Farmington, Kaysville, Layton, Clearfield, Syracuse and Sunset, was created per HB499. That's the 2023 law that requires Davis and Utah counties — the only larger Utah counties without homeless shelters — to come up with "winter response plans" to deal with the homeless on the coldest winter days and nights. But in researching the issue, the body came to the determination that some sort of permanent facility is needed, not just a plan applicable from Oct. 15 through April 30, as required by the state, Kamalu said.

The Davis County task force officials asked state lawmakers for $30 million for a homeless shelter during the 2024 legislative session — a request that was ultimately denied — and the proposal explains the request. The officials — who have been meeting on and off for nearly a year — also sought $2 million a year in ongoing allocations as part of the request.

"Operation of a temporary winter overflow shelter from Oct. 15 to April 30 has significant staffing and logistical challenges. Preferred approach is a full-time, year-round community resource center with comprehensive wraparound services and permanent supportive housing," the proposal reads.

Kamalu said Davis County has programs and organizations that can help address the housing needs of other vulnerable populations, including those with mental health problems. But the options to deal with more generalized homelessness are limited. In the absence of a homeless shelter, the county provides motel vouchers to those in need on the coldest winter days and nights. That policy, at least for now, will continue, Tran said at last week's meeting.

Needed — a 60-bed facility

Based on the information the task force has assembled thus far, Kamalu said Davis County would need a 60-bed facility if it were to build a shelter. As a model, she touted Switchpoint in St. George, a facility that assigns case managers to clients to assist them.

"An ambitious new vision of an all-in-one resource center for the homeless and others in dire financial straights, Switchpoint offers case management and a full array of services to try and get struggling individuals and families back on their feet, back to work and back into a home," the organization's website reads.

Though Kaysville officials and residents may be reticent about hosting a shelter, task force efforts will continue. A plan outlining what Davis County will do to aid the homeless during the 2024-2025 winter is due in August. However, if the county gives notice that it is pursuing a more comprehensive solution, a year-round shelter, it will have until August 2025 to put those plans together, according to Kamalu.

Nevertheless, securing funding for a shelter won't be the only hurdle.

Some, according to Kamalu, have mistakenly expressed concern that the homeless would be "bused in" from outside Davis County if a new shelter were built, which figured in the opposition among the public in Kaysville. "I do not want to see Kaysville turned into a Seattle, Washington, or Portland, Oregon," one woman told the Kaysville City Council at the March 21, meeting, alluding to the heavy homeless populations in those two cities.

Beyond overcoming reticence about hosting a shelter, there are more practical considerations. Kamalu said the ideal site needs to be near public transportation connections and services that the homeless tap.

A report last January from Kaysville city staffers to the Kaysville City Council noted a possible site in Clearfield, now owned by a billboard company. But the property owner had conditioned sale of the land on easing of rules prohibiting "outdoor digital signs" along I-15 in Davis County, something county leaders weren't open to.

It also mentioned the site of a Davis County Health Department emissions-testing facility in Kaysville, which spurred the debate in the city. The report noted "a number of concerns" with the emissions-testing location, however, including lack of "good access" to public transit and homeless service organizations. Beyond that, the report mentioned the site of an elementary school in Sunset that's to close after the 2023-2024 school year.

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Utah homelessnessUtah housingPoliticsUtahDavis County
Tim Vandenack covers immigration, multicultural issues and Northern Utah for KSL.com. He worked several years for the Standard-Examiner in Ogden and has lived and reported in Mexico, Chile and along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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