Utah homeless services board awards $1.8M to 3 cities for winter shelters

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's Homeless Services Board voted Tuesday to approve more than $1.8 million to three cities that host temporary winter shelter space.

Most of that money, $1.1 million, will go to Salt Lake City, with $378,000 for South Salt Lake and another $252,000 for Ogden. The board voted unanimously to award the funding out of the state's Homeless Shelter Cities Mitigation Restricted Account.

But South Salt Lake Mayor Cherie Wood, who also serves on the board, said the amount still doesn't cover the city's cost of hosting emergency shelter space in the city.

"It gets us closer to where we need to be, but it is woefully short from the expense to our communities," she said during a board meeting Tuesday.

Josh Romney, president and board chair of Shelter the Homeless, agreed, and suggested the board work with lawmakers in the future to get more money.

"I think one of our goals would be to work with the Legislature to significantly increase the amount of money that's allocated on this," he said. "I think South Salt Lake and Salt Lake City are incurring a lot of expenses that should be spread across the community."

The money is available to cities that host shelters with the capacity to provide temporary shelter to at least 50 people each night, and that are open for at least three months between October and April, when cold temperatures lead to more people seeking shelter. The board is obligated to award 10% of the funds from the homeless shelter account each year, per state law.

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said Ogden is also in need of additional funds and said several mayors are working on a proposal to do just that.

"You will see some proposed changes from us on what the fund is used for, how we count and how we propose to fund hopefully a greater amount going forward," she said.

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