Record homelessness in Utah renews clash between state and Salt Lake City officials

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3 days ago

The number of homeless Utahns surged to its highest level ever in 2025 as state leadership continues to debate how to balance enhanced law enforcement and increased funding for an expanded shelter system.
Nearly 4,600 Utahns were recorded as homeless during the annual 2025 Point-in-Time Count conducted the final weekend of January, representing an 18% increase from 2024 and the largest number on record.
'We had a huge increase in homelessness,' State Homeless Coordinator Wayne Niederhauser told the Deseret News. 'But we've been effective in responding to it.'
The sobering news comes as the nation also reaches record rates of homelessness. On Monday, President Donald Trump federalized the Washington, D.C., police department at least in part in an effort to crack down on the city's homeless encampments.
At the end of July, Trump issued an executive order overturning the government's 'housing first' approach to homelessness and instructing agencies to remove obstacles for states to place homeless individuals into long-term institutional care if they pose a risk to themselves or others.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox lauded the move, ordering the Utah Homeless Services Board, which includes Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, to 'fulfill the President's executive order and uphold public safety' in a letter joined by Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz.
In Utah, nearly half of the increase in homelessness was driven by growth in the chronically homeless population — defined as those who have spent at least a year on the streets with a disability, mental illness or drug addiction.
The total number of Utahns experiencing chronic homelessness increased by 36% since 2024, from 906 to 1,233. The number of homeless children increased by 12%, from 589 to 662. And the number of homeless seniors over 64 increased by 42% from 251 to 356.
There is a 'silver lining' in the data, according to Niederhauser: 95% of the increase was among homeless individuals in shelters — a reversal from the year before when 82% of the growth in homelessness was unsheltered.
This is an indication the state's investment in winter emergency shelters is helping keep Utahns off the street, according to Niederhauser. But the overall increase — the largest jump in recent memory — points to the need for a new approach.
Why did homelessness shoot up?
Utah's record amount of homelessness in 2025 increased the per capita rate to 13 per 10,000 people compared to the previous rate of around 10 or 11 per 10,000. This is still significantly below the national average of 23.
In its annual report published Wednesday, the Utah Office of Homeless Services attributed the rise in homelessness to a rapidly growing population that has outpaced the supply of affordable housing and access to behavioral health services.
The increase also follows an unprecedented spike in fentanyl being trafficked through the state. Between 2020 and 2024, the quantity of fentanyl seized in Utah increased 95-fold — with interdictions in 2025 nearly overtaking the prior year's record before May.
'The data is clear. There is an overlap between the drugs, the transient-related crime and violent crime,' Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd told the Deseret News. 'There is a connection to those things.'
Around two-thirds of Utah's homeless population lives in the Salt Lake City area, according to the Office of Homeless Services.
On Wednesday, Redd and Mendenhall held a press conference outside City Hall to send a message to the governor and legislative leadership about where responsibility lies for the growing problem.
Wednesday's report 'should be heard as a battle cry,' Mendenhall said, spurring action at the Utah Capitol to fully fund services and shelter space to prevent homelessness, encourage treatment and keep Utahns off of the streets.
'We need our state leaders to prioritize the resources to get this done,' Mendenhall said. 'So to Gov Cox, President Adams and Speaker Schultz, I'm calling on our state leadership to create a sea change that we need to address an issue that impacts all Utahns and just increased by 18%.'
In December, Cox; Adams, R-Layton; and Schultz, R-Hooper; sent a strongly worded letter to Mendenhall that called for the city to find solutions to 'eliminate crime and restore public safety' or have the Legislature step in.
Mendenhall subsequently provided a public safety plan with 27 recommendations that revolved around remaking city law enforcement and another 23 requests relying on state partners to help close the gap in homeless beds and the criminal justice system.
Since Redd has taken over as police chief, the department has taken 'enforcement as far as we can,' answering a record number of 911 calls with a record number of yearly arrests, contributing to a 16-year-low in crime, Mendenhall said.
The largest obstacle to changing 'the trajectory of homelessness in Utah,' Mendenhall said, isn't Salt Lake's willingness to crack down on crime, it's the Legislature's commitment to invest in long-term solutions, like funding the so-called 'transformative campus' touted by Cox and lawmakers.
'I'm extremely concerned by the lack of forward momentum from legislative leaders,' Mendenhall said. 'Salt Lake City is making good on our part, but the reality is, this is a humanitarian crisis, this is not something that we can police our way out of.'
State leaders push back on Mendenhall
Cox, Adams and Schultz pushed back against Mendenhall on Wednesday. Since Utah's homeless numbers began climbing in 2020, the state has invested more than $266 million on addressing homelessness, they said.
This level of direct state investment is rare; most states delegate homelessness policy to cities and counties. Cox, Adams and Schultz said the Utah Governor's Office and Legislature remain committed to helping municipal and private-sector partners 'find real solutions.'
The overhaul to city law enforcement under Redd has been an encouraging sign, the leaders said. Mendenhall agreed the city and state must work closer together to address homelessness concerns before the Salt Lake City Temple open house in 2027 and the Olympic Winter Games in 2034.
'The city needs to stay focused on its core responsibility of protecting its citizens, keeping streets safe and clean and making our capital a place Utahns can be proud of and visitors want to experience,' Cox, Adams and Schultz said.
'We urge Mayor Mendenhall to turn down the politics and keep working with us to find practical and lasting solutions to this complex issue. Our citizens expect results, not finger-pointing.'
During the 2025 legislative session, Utah lawmakers approved, and Cox signed into law, $3.9 million in ongoing funding to launch a second family shelter in Salt Lake County, $5.5 million in one-time funding to expand emergency cold-weather shelter operations statewide and $16.7 million to shore up public resources in shelter cities.
Will lawmakers fund the planned shelter?
The session prior, the Legislature appropriated $25 million to buy land and construct the future backbone of the state's homelessness response: a 30-acre campus with 1,200-1,600 beds and an integrated system of treatment resources and recovery programs on site.
Niederhauser said they are still investigating several potential properties for the campus. But many of them, including an area near the Salt Lake City Airport that the Legislature made available for eminent domain, require wetland studies that will take several more weeks to apply for, and several months to complete through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The priority for Niederhauser's office going into the 2026 legislative session is appropriations to fully fund the construction of the facility because the $25 million they received 'isn't going to be sufficient to do it all,' Niederhauser said.
But Niederhauser said they won't put '$25-50 million of infrastructure on the ground' until the Legislature has decided whether it is willing to set aside the necessary annual funding to make the campus functional, 'which is going to be a very large number.'
It currently costs the state $15-$20 million to fund the shelter beds that are available, Niederhauser said. And a campus that is actually intended to model operations like Haven For Hope homelessness campus in San Antonio, Texas, could cost twice that much every year.
'We're obviously going to need to have additional funding for the campus, and that'll be a high priority for us,' Niederhauser said. 'That would probably be our focus.'
In the meantime before the campus is completed, Niederhauser said the Legislature can appropriate funding to keep the 1,100 winter beds available past April so providers aren't forced to release 'hundreds of additional people to sleep on the street' each spring.
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