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K Marlo Yost
Member since Sep 20, 2019
Recent Comments
Re: “The Road Out”
The current shelter, the one being shut down, held 1,100. On most nights last winter, it was over capacity. I know, I was there. The three new shelters put together hold only 700, and that figure is a hard figure, as the contracts for all of the new centers stipulate that they not exceed capacity. Does anybody else see the obvious math problem here?
Not only that, but there hasn't been any new supportive housing like Palmer Court opened since 2010. The majority of the homeless will be gone from downtown, maybe, so there are a few happy developers who will soon be much wealthier. Inevitably, however, parks and public places will have to play host to the growing surplus that cannot be housed. So 3 new centers were designed and built to house LESS people.
Are rents going down? No. Are there new facilities somewhere to house and treat the mentally ill? No. Have more inpatient addiction recovery programs opened up to ease the months-long waiting lists? No. Will people who can't get a job or an apartment because of past felonies somehow going to be able to get expungements to overcome that massive hurdle? No. Is the homeless population likely to decrease then, especially considering the fact that Utah is growing by around 58,000 people a year? Unlikely.
This is simply a shelter shell game.