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.
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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