It was standing room only at the North Salt Lake City Council meeting Tuesday night as residents petitioned the city to stop a proposal for a homeless shelter coming into their neighborhood after hearing that Switchpoint, a private company that provides resources for those who are experiencing homelessness, was considering purchasing the Lifeline building at 1130 West Center Street. 

Residents also attended last week’s county commission meeting to express their concern to the commission.

“The proximity of the entrance of the building to the Legacy Trail is 72 steps,” one resident said. “The back of the school (Foxboro Elementary) recess area to the front door is .76 miles. It’s .77 miles from the farthest south entrance to walk on the same sidewalks children are walking alone to and from school.”

Residents also voiced concern that the decision seems to keep bouncing back and forth between the county and the state and they were never given the opportunity to weigh in. “Where can we go to have our voices heard?” another woman said.

“I had major concern with the bill that passed in 2023 requiring counties our size to provide shelter beds for Code Blue and Winter Response,” said Commissioner Lorene Kamalu. “Code Blue and Winter Response means beds for unhoused people for extremely cold days and also 60+ beds from Oct. 15-April 30. We have not yet had a general population homeless shelter in our county.”

Since the 2023 law passed, a task force of voting city mayors from Bountiful, Farmington, Kaysville, Layton, Clearfield, Syracuse and Sunset and Commissioner Bob Stevenson worked to submit the required plan, due Aug. 1, 2024, said Kamalu. “The task force was required and prescribed to work on the issue, by law.”

The task force submitted a Code Blue-only plan Aug. 1 for this coming winter which was a Dignity Bus with 20 spots, Kamalu said. “The State denied the plan due to insufficient funding a few days later. The State now has the authority to make the decision.”

The State now has primitive authority to come in and do whatever they would like in the county, said Ryan Steinbeigle, Grant Administrator for Davis County. “The county is not the one who went out to look for the property to buy. Switchpoint contacted the state and us to fund it.”

The state is supportive, he said. “If the state puts money into it to make it happen do we (county) really want them to control it? If we contribute we have to own the building. We’re waiting to see what the state will do.”

If the county decides to fund it, Steinbeigle said they would use $1 million of state and local fiscal recovery funds that are part of the COVID money. “They would use that to assist in the purchase so that we could have our own building. Then we could have control over what happens on the property.”

However, the North Salt Lake City Council is taking the stance that they will do everything they can to prevent this from happening. The Council approved Resolution 2024-30R at the end of the meeting reading: a resolution which affirmatively states its opposition to a proposed homeless shelter within the City limits and calls upon the County Commission, the Davis County Winter Response Task Force, and the Davis County Local Homeless Council to find a permanent year-round shelter location that more fully meets the needs of Davis County’s homeless population.

“I would ask that the city deny zoning for this,” said Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross. “There are no health care services, no mental health services, no employment services in North Salt Lake and no supportive housing or transportation.”

It’s a 90 minute walk from that site to the Woods Cross FrontRunner station, he said. “If you managed to make it there and then to the Layton station, it’s another 30 minutes to Davis Behavior Health. That could take two and a half hours. There’s a huge transportation issue.”

Nobody wants a shelter in their backyard, said Weiler. “I believe this is a lands decision and the powers that be will have to look for other locations that are more suitable.”

This came up very quickly, said Rep. Melissa Ballard, R-North Salt Lake. “We don’t have the facilities for this. It just doesn’t make sense. I would encourage as neighbors that we work together. We need your voices.”