SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A new “centralized campus” for the homeless could emerge on the Wasatch Front.

The Utah Homeless Services Board approved the research earlier in October, and now a location somewhere along the Wasatch Front could house the facility.

The board is seeking an area of ​​at least 30 acres to accommodate the campus, which would have up to 1,200 beds and a number of on-site services.

People were reluctant when homeless shelters were proposed in their neighborhoods.

Like Barbara Crandall, who said she would move if one were built near her home in North Salt Lake.

“And I live where I’ve lived for 20 years,” Crandall said last month.

The North Salt Lake City Council agreed with Crandall and rejected the idea.

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“I’m not sure any city will raise its hand and say, ‘We’re going to create a homeless shelter in our city,'” Ryan Steinbeigle of Davis County Economic and Community Development said after the council vote .

The Utah Homeless Services Council has decided that the Office of Homeless Services has until Dec. 15 to find three viable locations for a new “centralized, transformative campus.”

“Having this variety of services, housing, medical care, mental health support, job training, food, all in one centralized location,” President Randy Shumway said during the meeting.

A board member asked how this shelter would be different from the downtown Road Home shelter that closed a few years ago.

“I get asked this question a lot,” said Wayne Niederhauser, Utah’s homeless coordinator.

Niederhauser said the Road Home was never a campus, but rather a central location with very limited on-site services.

“This is in no way what we envision for a campus,” he said.

The campus is modeled after a place in San Antonio called “Haven for Hope.”

If you’re worried about this happening in your neighborhood, said strategist Maura Caraballo during the Take2 podcastpeople should just look at what’s going on there.

“They’ve seen home values ​​go up in the area, they’ve seen crime go down, you can live with those environments successfully,” she said.

Along with this December 15 deadline, OHS has until January 15, 2025 to provide a master plan for the campus model.

The goal is to build something by October 1, 2025.

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