Salt Lake City searches for 300 more beds as homeless camp in Rio Grande cleaned up again
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Crews have cleaned up a large homeless camp in Salt Lake City's Rio Grande neighborhood.
Tuesday morning’s camp abatement is the latest effort in that troubled area. But is anything going to change?
Andrew Johnston, Salt Lake's new point person on homelessness, acknowledged it's just another band-aid on a problem that remains unsolved.
“Housing,” said Johnston when asked that he wants to see long-term.
Existing affordable housing — we’ve got to maintain, we’ve got to retain it, we’ve got to improve it. We’ve got to get new housing on site. We’ve got to get a lot of permanent supportive housing for folks with severe mental illness or addiction issues. And we need all of it.”
However, the immediate challenge, he said, is finding 300 beds in overflow shelters to help get people off the streets this summer. This comes as several overflow shelters at hotels are closing this month, including the Airport Inn, which will undergo a renovation and reopen in September.
“We’ve got 300 people that we need beds for right now to get inside, off the streets, out of the heat,” Johnston said. “We can do that. And then we’ll keep working on this long-term housing through the summer and the fall and the next several years.”
As far as new overflow shelter options, Johnston said the city is “willing to purchase those, willing to rent, whatever we got to do to get folks in. So reach out to the city if you have options.”
Meanwhile, officials say, cleaning up in the Rio Grande area is needed as the camp grew too large and unsafe.
We’ve done a lot of outreach over the last week or so with folks camping down here,” Johnston said.
Dale Keller with the Salt Lake County Health Department estimated crews would remove more than 100 tons of garbage and refuse from the area.
“From a health perspective, this is not appropriate for our community,” Keller said.
It’s been a difficult time for the Rio Grande neighborhood, particularly for Oasis Stage Werks, which is one of the only businesses on the street. 2News recently reported on concerns from people working there who felt the city was neglecting the area.
“It’s just been awful,” said Pandora Holder, an installations office manager at the company.
Today, with the camp cleanup, she's a little more optimistic.
“It’s nice to have it cleaned up,” Holder said. “Then maybe we can not be afraid to come in to work and maybe get back to business like we should.”
Yet, the last time crews came through Rio Grande to clean up, the homeless camp sprang back almost immediately. Johnston said to combat that this time, police will have a greater presence there every day to try to keep the camp from becoming too big again.
Johnston said there's some room available in the shelters. He also said libraries, community centers, senior centers, and resource centers are open for those experiencing homelessness to stay cool during the day as a heat wave persists.
