Salt Lake City – Building on the momentum created last year when Salt Lake City and Phoenix tied to become the first cities in the nation to end chronic homelessness among veterans, Mayor Ralph Becker and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams joined forces this week to bring community leaders together to work on a new and equally ambitious homeless issue. They’ve created the Homeless Services Site Evaluation Commission.
This commission, co-chaired by Gail Miller and former Salt Lake City Mayor Palmer DePaulis, will evaluate and consider the best configurations and locations for shelter and other emergency homeless services and assemble a recommendation report to help shape the future of these facilities in Salt Lake City.
Mayor Becker cited Salt Lake City’s success in ending chronic veteran homelessness as impetus behind the new effort.
“That accomplishment required hard work and the dedication of many individuals and organizations, but was possible because of the unique way our community comes together to productively solve problems,” said Mayor Becker. “I know the same will be true for this renewed effort to address homelessness.”
The purpose of the commission is to carefully and deliberately consider, advise and recommend the best configuration and location for shelter and other emergency homeless services.
The commission will be tasked with comprehensively identifying community needs for shelter and emergency services and then determining, with sensitivity to residents and business owners, how best and where to provide those services.
“Our providers do a great job offering services to those experiencing homelessness,” said Mayor Becker. “We need to determine how the greater community can effectively support these providers in their efforts.”
Commission members have been identified and a letter inviting them to serve was sent this week. The commission will hold its first meeting in January 2015 and is expected to meet approximately every six weeks. A tentative goal has been set for completing a set of recommendations/findings by late fall 2015.
