SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall has issued an emergency declaration to add capacity to homeless shelters after five people died during recent cold weather conditions.
“My heart goes out to everyone who knew and loved and worked to serve the unsheltered individuals who’ve passed away in just a few days here in Salt Lake City,” said Mendenhall.
Mendenhall made the announcement Tuesday, ordering two shelters to increase capacity by 25 beds. The 30-day order will take effect at the Geraldine E. King and Gail Miller resource centers.
“There were an average of 109 beds available each night in the county shelter system in the month of December,” said Mendenhall, “The frigid temperatures lead to those beds over the weekend becoming effectively full and ahead of what we expect to be dangerously low temperatures in the coming days.”
State leaders have also agreed to give funding to provide transportation necessary for increased shelter capacity.
In addition, Millcreek and South Salt Lake will expand capacity at locations in those areas.
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Mendenhall said it’s not a permanent solution to the homelessness problem in Salt Lake City.
“We’re doing a temporary band-aid fix here,” she said. “This is not the solution.”
Pamela Atkinson, a homeless advocate in Salt Lake City, says there has been an influx of more people without homes coming to the area.
“I just think however much we plan, and we have over 300 extra beds, and it’s going to be increased more, that the number of unsheltered people coming into Salt Lake City has increased,” said Atkinson, citing inflation among other factors she believes play a role in the numbers.
Atkinson said she is concerned about how the shelters are going to be able to handle more intake.
“Now these extra beds, part of the problem is, is there enough staff? When you talk to the staff at these resource centers, they are sometimes overwhelmed, and they’re burned out and many of them get a call to come in overtime,” she said.
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Utah Homelessness Coordinator Wayne Niederhauser admitted it will be difficult to find workers.
“Staffing is one of our biggest issues right now and it highlights the need for us to rally around the Governor’s budget,” said Niederhauser.
Niederhauser said it may take weeks for the shelters to expand by 25 beds under the emergency order, citing the staffing shortage.
Atkinson said she hopes to see more permanent supportive housing and services for homelessness in the near future.
“The long-term solutions are building different types of housing. Our homeless friends are just like the general public. Some people prefer to be in an apartment on their own with follow-up case management, other people want to be in permanent supportive housing because they have their own community around and there’s a lot of socializing. But you have to respect those people who just want to go into an apartment alone,” she said.
She said it’s going to take every Salt Laker getting involved.
“It’s not just government. It’s got to be private as well. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to achieve the ultimate goals of having enough affordable housing, having enough food, and not having any unsheltered people,” said Atkinson.
