Comments about Salt Lake City busing its homeless population south has proved to be nothing more than a myth.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has apologized for accusing Salt Lake police officers and city officials of buying homeless people one-way bus tickets to Las Vegas after no solid evidence could be found to support his claims.
"My request to investigate an allegation that Salt Lake City's homeless were being 'sent' to Las Vegas has caused the good people of Salt Lake to have great concern," Goodman said in a statement released Tuesday evening. "They have denied the allegation, and no credible information has been brought to my attention to substantiate it. As a result, I would like to apologize for any misunderstanding my comments have generated."
Goodman's comments drew attention last week after he said that reliable sources had told him that homeless people were receiving bus tickets from Salt Lake police officers and that he had asked for an investigation. He made the comments during a conference about the homeless problem in Las Vegas.
Matt Minkevitch, executive director of The Road Home (formerly Traveler's Aid), said his agency never suspected that somebody had started busing the homeless to Las Vegas.
"We understood that was never the case, and we knew that (Goodman) was discovering what we already knew," he said.
Goodman's comments, while negative, have had a positive effect because it has prompted more dialogue about the homeless problem in both cities, Minkevitch said. Because the allegations surfaced during a summit about the homeless problem, it does demonstrate that Las Vegas is at least attempting to address the issue. Now, the two cities may actually work a little bit closer.
"We certainly want to work with our counterparts in Las Vegas," Minkevitch said. "We have things that could help them, and they have ideas for us."
Josh Ewing, spokesman for Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson, said city officials were not surprised that no evidence could back up Goodman's claims. The city has been making efforts to provide additional services for an expected increase in homeless people during the upcoming Winter Games.
"It goes against everything we're doing for the Olympics," Ewing said.
Although Goodman did not contact Anderson to apologize in person, Ewing said that when the two mayors talked previously about the allegations, Goodman had said that he had no evidence.
"We're glad we were able to rectify the misunderstanding," Ewing said. "It worked out the best it could have, given the situation."
E-MAIL: jloftin@desnews.com