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)
This story is breaking and will be updated.
The day before a deadline given to her by the state’s top Republican leaders, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall on Thursday unveiled a lengthy, multi-pronged plan to address homelessness, crime and other public safety issues in Utah’s capital city.
The plan comes after Gov. Spencer Cox, House Speaker Mike Schultz and Senate President Stuart Adams sent Mendenhall a letter Dec. 13 expressing frustrations with “disorder” in Salt Lake City and calling the Salt Lake City Police Department “ineffective.”
They gave the mayor a little over a month to come up with a plan to “restore public confidence, security and safety” in the state’s capital. They wrote that if “progress stalls or alignment cannot be achieved,” the 2025 Utah Legislature would be prepared with “legislation to increase state involvement and oversight.”
In a lengthy written response to the governor, Senate president and House speaker prefacing her plan, Mendenhall took a tactful rather than defensive tone — thanking them for their letter “recognizing the importance of public safety in Salt Lake City and acknowledging the serious needs to address homelessness in Utah and our capital city.”
She described homelessness as the “single greatest challenge” her administration has faced, and one that cities across the nation are grappling with. To help “create space” in homeless shelters, jails, housing, treatment beds and the criminal justice system, Mendenhall said her plan focuses on a “high utilizer” population with “more complicated needs than a stay in jail or placement in housing alone can solve.”
“They include individuals living with mental health needs, substance use disorders, general trauma, those who may be both victims and perpetrators of crime, and a combination of these factors,” Mendenhall wrote.
She promised the city will “bring significant public safety action” in “high-need areas” around the Jordan River, the Ballpark neighborhood and downtown to ensure they’re “safe, clean and welcoming for all,” and the Salt Lake City Police Department will also “implement consistent foot patrols, increased bike patrols and special operations” in downtown areas.
“As with any humanitarian crisis, immediate and ongoing action is vital,” Mendenhall wrote, saying her plan calls for “immediate, mid-term and longer-term” actions from not just the city, but other partners. “Coinciding with increased public safety, we must create space in many parts of the system as soon as possible.”
In addition to increasing patrols, Mendenhall said Salt Lake City is “dedicated to creating supportive shelter options as quickly as possible,” and she said her administration is prepared to “host a temporary location for year-round emergency shelter” while state officials continue to “finalize a permanent campus.”
“This plan is certainly not perfect, nor is it completely exhaustive of opportunities for further improvement,” Mendenhall wrote, calling her plan a “system-wide approach to improve public safety” and address a “humanitarian crisis.”
However, she also issued a warning:
“To select some recommendations and disregard or only partially implement strategies will not result in the success you expect and all Utahns deserve,” she wrote. “We must embark with collective momentum to effectively address this crisis.”
The 50-page plan includes 27 specific actions Salt Lake City will take, of which 11 will be “immediate or short-term.” But Mendenhall also listed 23 recommended larger “system changes” involving other jurisdictions including other cities, Salt Lake County and the state, some of which the plan says will require state legislation and additional funding.
The plan’s executive summary lists four “key barriers” that city, county and state leaders must address to improve crime and homelessness issues:
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A lack of affordable and supportive housing.
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Inadequate availability of mental health care, substance abuse treatment and other “wraparound services.”
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Poor coordination among law enforcement, service providers, the courts, and government agencies allowing people to “fall through the cracks.”
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Challenges balancing the needs of people experiencing homelessness with “the safety and usability of public spaces.”
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Mendenhall’s plan is boiled down to six “key actions and recommendations” that the city, county and state must take, including:
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Improving public safety by getting guns and drugs off of the street: Salt Lake City Police Department will “intensify police presence in downtown and in higher-crime areas” while its Violent Crime Apprehensive Team will “crack down on drugs, particularly fentanyl, and firearm offenses — which are often connected to gang activity.”
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Increase the consequences for high utilizers: Better coordinate prosecution of “high utilizers” and “prosecutors will seek more stringent penalties.” The plan also says jail overcrowding and frequent pretrial release “must be addressed.”
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Expand mental health, behavioral health and substance use treatment options: “Without this, people cannot move through the system,” the plan says.
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Invest in housing: Increase availability of deeply affordable and permanent supportive housing “so that emergency shelter and treatment beds are not dead ends.”
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Commit to a joint plan and execute it: “Nothing in this plan is effective without coordination and solutions at every point in the system,” the plan says, calling for the state, county and “all cities” to commit to “improve the system, hold people accountable, and get them needed help, and save taxpayer money.”
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