Utah
Can Utah commit to reducing homelessness before hosting another Olympics?
Salt Lake law enforcement officials patrol as Salt Lake County Well being Division employees clear up homeless encampments on 500 West and 400 South in Salt Lake Metropolis. As homelessness will increase in Salt Lake County, officers met in a Poverty Summit Saturday to debate how you can scale back homelessness. (Laura Seitz, Deseret Information)
Estimated learn time: 5-6 minutes
MILLCREEK — Spiritual leaders, advocates and elected officers requested what it could take to scale back homelessness in Salt Lake County because the state prepares to doubtlessly host one other Olympic Video games.
The query and plenty of makes an attempt to reply it was posed throughout a Poverty Summit held by Crossroads City Heart at Christ United Methodist Church on Saturday. The summit featured displays by state and native governments on present plans to scale back the growing want.
“If we do not begin planning now, we’re actually not going to be finished by 2030, we’d not be finished by 2034. Time is of the essence if we don’t wish to have extra individuals tenting exterior when the world comes to go to us, then we have to begin engaged on it now and we’re beginning to work on it,” stated Invoice Tibbitts, related director of City Crossroads Heart.
The difficulty of homelessness is commonly thought to be “complicated” and “multifaceted”, one thing that requires a number of approaches and methods to actually remedy. But because the state continues to pour funding into lowering it — the Utah Legislature allotted a report $70 million within the 2022 session — homelessness continues to be on the rise.
A 2022 homelessness report by the Utah Division of Workforce Providers’ Workplace of Homeless Providers revealed that the homeless inhabitants is growing, with the variety of Utahns experiencing homelessness for the primary time growing by 14% from 2020 to 2021.
Roughly 12,023 individuals obtained homeless providers in Salt Lake County in 2021 — with a lot of these being kids.
State officers level to the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, skyrocketing housing prices, lack of housing and growing inhabitants as potential causes for the rise. Advocates and spiritual leaders narrowed the reason for homelessness to 1 factor — the shortage of housing or capacity to pay for it.
An evaluation launched by the Authorities Accountability Workplace in 2020 revealed that a rise of the median hire of $100 per thirty days will improve homelessness in that group by 9%, prior to now three years the typical month-to-month hire in Salt Lake County has elevated by virtually $300.
The Salt Lake Valley Coalition to Finish Homelessness has known as for two,950 models to fulfill the present want to scale back homelessness. These models embody: 600 models of everlasting supportive housing, 1,000 models for short-term fast rehousing help, 200 shared housing models, 900 deeply inexpensive models and 150 completely sponsored models.
Crossroads City Heart has set a objective to realize the variety of models earlier than the state doubtlessly hosts an Olympic Video games in 2030 or 2034.
“I do not imagine we actually have that sort of time. I do know they wish to preserve issues sensible and doable however religion shouldn’t be sensible. It’s visionary,” stated Rev. Curtis Value of First Baptist Church of Salt Lake Metropolis. “How about 2,950 models earlier than we construct one other jail? Earlier than we gentrify one other neighborhood, construct one other luxurious excessive rise, or construct one other freeway?”
In a panel dialogue, Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini, Utah state homelessness coordinator Wayner Nierdauser, Salt Lake Metropolis homeless coordinator Andrew Johnston and Dina Blaes of Salt Lake County Regional Improvement mentioned present efforts to fulfill that quantity.
“I simply say that simply because I need you to know that our native management is engaged in attempting to unravel the issues of our state. However as a mayor, I imply that this can be a vital drawback,” stated Silvestrini. “Nevertheless it’s additionally essential to my 63,000 constituents that the rubbish will get picked up, that there’d be police safety, that there’d be fireplace safety, that we’ve working water and sewers and streets which can be paved, and on and on and on.”
The mayor stated that whereas there are various issues native authorities try to deal with, town nonetheless gives non permanent winter shelter to assist resolve the instant want.
“We will not do it alone and we won’t do it completely due to the opposite obligations we’ve, however I do care,” stated Silvestrini. “I do know that there are homeless unsheltered individuals which can be from Millcreek. … Most of our unsheltered inhabitants is from Utah. It is our personal households.”
So what’s being finished?
Points recognized in offering extra housing because the inhabitants continues to develop embody lack of density, costly land costs and resistance to mixed-income communities, stated Dina Blaes of Salt Lake County Regional Improvement.
Funding granted within the American Rescue Plan Act to the state gives a “as soon as in a era alternative,” however the issue is the need of these “exterior of this room,” stated Blaes.
She pointed to neighborhoods with a “not in my yard” mindset and several other housing proposals being turned down by metropolis councils as a result of group backlash. To fulfill the demand for extra inexpensive housing and the necessity for density, many must settle for combined revenue residents.
This fall and into subsequent 12 months, roughly 500 models of deeply inexpensive models can be obtainable, stated Niederhauser. Moreover, the Utah Workplace of Homelessness plans to ask the Legislature for $15 million of ongoing funds for housing grants.
“There’s loads of nuances, however a key a part of this that we’re lacking is ongoing funds which partly may very well be used, I imagine, for a state voucher program,” stated Niederhauser.
Ongoing funds had been additionally talked about by Johnston, who deemed them “vital” in addressing the issue.
“After we speak about timber as a metropolis official, the very best time to plant a tree is 20 years in the past, and the second greatest time is at the moment. Housing is an identical factor,”‘ stated Johnston. “We survive loads in these programs on one-time funding when issues are good or when there is a disaster … however we’ve to construct it into our programs.”
The Salt Lake Metropolis Council is scheduled to listen to further proposals on inexpensive housing and homelessness in its coming classes, Johnston added.
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Utah
Utah family creates 'Giving Gallery' to spread joy of art
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — You might have heard of little libraries in neighborhoods, but have you heard of Giving Galleries?
A family in Cottonwood Heights is using their love for art to bring joy to those around them.
On the corner of Promenade and Camino is Abigail Bradshaw.
“I’m standing next to an art gallery, my art gallery. That’s my house,” she proudly said.
Abigail is showing her tiny art gallery filled with pieces made by her family and others who want to contribute. This home used to be her great-grandmother’s.
“She was an artist, and so, I wanted to continue that legacy,” said Katie Bradshaw, Abigail’s mom. They found a box, painted it, propped it up, and filled it with tiny art. Anyone can just look at the art, pick up something they like, or put their own piece inside.
Miles Jacobsen is a friend who saw what the Bradshaws were doing and added his artwork to the box.
For people who want to make their own masterpieces, there is also a box of free art supplies in the gallery box. You can come by to pick up paint, paintbrushes, and tiny canvasses to create your own art, which you can drop off at the “giving gallery” to bring joy to someone else.
“I feel really glad that people come and get some art and put it in there,” said Abigail.
Filling the box is something Katie does with her kids.
“I hope that they can carry this with them, that they continue sharing art, no matter where they are,” she said.
Spreading joy to everyone who walks by, and letting the cycle continue.
“I want them to feel happy and glad that they got some, so they could return some back here,” added Abigail.
Utah
Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame
TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.
The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”
Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.
The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.
The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.
It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.
In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.
Utah
Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer
SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.
The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.
Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?
Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.
Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?
You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.
There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?
We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.
Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?
This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.
If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.
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Share your ideas on how to make Utah’s roads safer
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