Utah lawmakers look to use eminent domain to help SLC site new homeless shelter

Yahoo

27-02-2025

The Salt Lake City & County Building in Salt Lake City is pictured on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
A bill that would have previously forced the Salt Lake City Police Department to formally partner with the state to police camping and drugs or else risk losing state funds now looks entirely different.
And now Salt Lake City leaders support it.
'We want to express some gratitude to the sponsor for working with us on the bill to bring us from a position of strongly opposed to support,' Rachel Otto, chief of staff for Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, told lawmakers during a Senate committee on Thursday.
The bill's sponsor, House Majority Assistant Whip Casey Snider, R-Paradise, changed his bill, HB465, in that committee meeting to a new version that still requires Salt Lake City police to entry into an agreement 'related to public safety concerns' with the state Department of Public Safety by July 1.
Bill would force SLC to partner with state to police camping, drugs — or else risk losing funds
But now, instead of facing potential penalties of 'reduced' funding from the state Homeless Shelter Cities Mitigation Restricted Account and withheld state road funding based on set deadlines, the new version of HB465 would require Salt Lake City police to present lawmakers sitting on the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee the terms of the agreement and whether police have 'successfully improved public safety.'
There's also a brand new provision in HB465 that city and state officials intend to use to turn a city-owned property into a temporary — maybe even permanent — emergency homeless shelter that Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall offered in her public safety plan that she unveiled in December in response to Gov. Spencer Cox and Republican legislative leaders' demand that she do more to address homelessness, camping, crime and drugs in Utah's capital.
If approved by the full Utah Legislature, HB465 would now allow the state Division of Facilities Construction and Management to 'use eminent domain to condemn unincorporated property owned by' Salt Lake City 'for the public use of constructing a new facility on the land for homelessness services.'
That new eminent domain power would only be temporary, lasting a few years. It would be repealed on July 1, 2027.
'I've long said that the system needs more shelter. This is a humanitarian crisis that will not be resolved quickly,' Mendenhall said in a prepared statement to Utah News Dispatch on Thursday. 'As much as I would prefer to have more shelter and housing in all counties across the state, I also recognize the acute needs here. Specifically, we know how difficult it is to open winter beds every year that close and leave people outside all summer. That being said, we are willing to explore permanent shelter if it is fully funded by the state and philanthropic partners.'
In order to immediately address what her administration identified in her plan as a 'shortage of 1,000 to 1,600 year-round emergency shelter beds,' Mendenhall previously said in her plan that Salt Lake City would be prepared to use a 'city-owned property for a campus facility for up to 24 months if capital and operational costs can be allocated by the state and philanthropic partners' while state officials work to site a permanent property.
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For months, state officials have been on a secret search for a 30-acre property meant to host a 'transformative campus' to increase Utah's emergency shelter bed capacity by up to 1,200 beds. State Homeless Coordinator Wayne Niederhauser has said it will likely take time to get the permanent campus not only sited, but also operational, so it could take years before the property is ready to house people.
It's not yet known which Salt Lake City-owned property Mendenhall would offer up for a shelter — but Snider gave some hints during Thursday's committee hearing while he presented his bill.
'Salt Lake City currently owns a parcel of land that has an easement against it for conservation, where they have identified as a place to establish their homelessness campus,' Snider said, adding that the eminent domain provision in his bill would 'allow them to move forward with that.'
Otto described the new version of Snider's bill and the partnership it would formalize with the state Department of Public Safety as 'critical to implementing the public safety plan that we released last month.'
The 'eminent domain piece,' Otto said, is also 'important' for city and state partners to execute that public safety plan.
State leaders call SLC police 'ineffective,' urge mayor to act — or state will step in
'Salt Lake City has been clear that we feel like we need additional emergency shelter in the system, and this will help us achieve that,' Otto said. 'We also have been clear that emergency shelter is not the only thing we need in the system. We also need other long-term space in the system, including housing, mental and behavioral health and other solutions.'
However, Otto said Salt Lake City leaders now 'do feel this is a great step toward ideally reducing unsheltered homelessness and forming other collaborations that will help us really make a difference in the capital city and for people experiencing homelessness.'
The Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice committee voted 4-0 on Thursday to endorse HB465 and advance it to the full Senate, pressing it closer to the legislative finish line. Lawmakers have a bit more than a week in their 2025 session, which must end before midnight on March 7.
Mendenhall has warned that in order for her plan to succeed, state leaders can't treat it as an 'a la carte menu,' and pick and choose what they like. She said it has to be implemented holistically.
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Among her biggest 'short-term actions' Mendenhall included in her plan is calling on the Legislature to 'identify and allocate a stable, dedicated funding source for homeless services, mental and behavioral health, and affordable housing during the 2025 legislative session.'
While the Salt Lake County Council recently voted to raise sales taxes to fund an expansion to the county's jail capacity, it remains to be seen whether the 2025 Utah Legislature will dedicate any ongoing funding to those priorities. Pointing to a negative updated budget forecast, legislative leaders have said they're facing limited funds this year — but they're also eager to cut taxes.
Snider's new version of HB465 also came after some major developments this month that impacted the leadership of the Salt Lake City Police Department.
About two weeks ago, Mendenhall announced that she had pushed former Police Chief Mike Brown to resign after she 'determined that it's time for the next chapter in the SLCPD's leadership.'
Then, last week, Mendenhall announced her new police chief: Brian Redd, who most recently worked for the state as executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections.
Legislative leaders including Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, applauded the move, praising Redd as a collaborator. Adams called him the 'right person at the right time' to lead Salt Lake City police.
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