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Crossroads Urban Center-December

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  2. Crossroads Urban Center-December

 

How difficult will it be for homeless people to get to the new shelter from the Department of Workforce Services Employment Center in Salt Lake City?

11/8/2024

 

Every month over 350 people in Salt Lake County become homeless for the first time.  Many of those people struggle to find help.  One huge problem right now is that the homeless shelters in Salt Lake County are full and so over 1,000 people are sleeping outside.  The state of Utah is working to solve that problem by building a 1,200-bed homeless shelter. 
 
Unfortunately, many of the locations being considered for the new shelter are very far away from other places homeless people go to find help.   According to reporting from the Salt Lake Tribune and KSL the following locations are being considered for the new shelter:
  • ​LeeKay Conservation Center, at approximately 2100 South and 7200 West,
  • Bacchus Highway, at approximately 5600 South Bacchus Highway,
  • Standlee Warehouse, at 5 South 5100 West, 
  • Salt Lake County Oxbow Jail, 3048 South 1100 West, and,
  • Properties on Beck Street in North Salt Lake City.

We used Google Maps to get estimates for how far each of these sites are from the Department of Workforce Services Employment Center in Salt Lake City, located at 720 South 200 East, and how long it would take to get there by car, foot, bicycle and transit.  We did not find a good way to estimate the time it would take to travel to each potential site using a wheelchair.  DWS offices are a likely place a recently homeless person would go for help because that is where people apply for Medicaid, SNAP, cash assistance, job training and other services that can help individuals move out of homelessness.  There are only two DWS employment centers in Salt Lake County and so it is very likely that many newly homeless people will learn about the location of the new homeless shelter at the Sale Lake center.

In addition to looking at travel time from the employment center to a potential shelter site we also looked at how far people would need to travel by foot or wheelchair if they traveled using public transportation and how early and late in the day people could use transit to leave or return to a potential shelter site.  These things are important because they factor into whether a recently homeless person will be able to keep their job if they have to get there from one of these potential shelter sites.

​Here is what we found.

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Many homeless people do not have money to pay for public transportation and so it is very important that it would take five hours and forty-seven minutes to walk to the most remote of the potential locations.  That is longer than it would take a person with a car to drive from Salt Lake City to St. George.  Homeless people are disproportionately likely to have physical disabilities that make it hard for them to walk miles and so even the distance they would be required to walk to use public transportation would be impossible for some people.  Homeless people are also disproportionately likely to have cognitive problems or mental health issues that make them less able to navigate a transit trip that includes eight stages alternating between walking, riding a bus and riding a train.

We did not have time to conduct a detailed assessment of how safe the roads to each of these locations would be for pedestrians and bicyclists but we did drive to each location and made a few observations.  None of these locations will be safe for people who are not in cars when there is snow piled on bicycle lanes after snow plows have cleared the roads.  Many of the roads are in industrial areas that were not designed to be safe for bicyclists or pedestrians.   There was a wave of pedestrian fatalities when the existing men's shelter was opened in South Salt Lake City and so it is important to plan for safety from the beginning.

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Remember those in need.

We do God’s work by:

  • Growing in faith through worship, study, solidarity with the poor and the marginalized, prayer, and fellowship
  • Risking innovation and Spirit-led change
  • Anchoring ourselves in Christ’s love, hope, and joy
  • Caring for all with compassion and respect
  • Excelling in every endeavor

 

 

Resources for the Mind and Soul

Living Lutheran

Daily Bible Readings

Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology

On Being, by Krista Tippett

Pr. Nadia Bolz-Weber

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Sunday Worship 10:30am

175 South 700 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84102

Phone: 801-328-0521
Email: office@mttaborslc.org

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