Utah needs someone in charge of helping homeless people back into society. Whether you call that person a czar, a director or, as a lawmaker facetiously suggested this week, a high priestess, matters little. Someone needs to be accountable and responsible for directing funds, collecting data and focusing on a vision for this important work.
Governing by committee won’t provide this.
Fortunately, Utah lawmakers took the first step toward this on Thursday, as the House Government Operations Committee passed HB394, sponsored by Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan.
Curiously, the bill is strongly opposed by the Department of Workforce Services and others involved in the current operational design of homeless services along the Wasatch Front. Proponents of the bill went as far as to accuse the executive branch of trying to dictate a substitute version of the bill that would have made the new point person a figurehead, while keeping the real power with the Homeless Coordinating Committee, whose chairman is Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox.
That committee is made up of mayors and service providers who, regardless of their good intentions, have conflicts of interest when it comes to directing efforts and disbursing funds. They also have little incentive to hear from providers outside the committee.
This committee meets quarterly, which is hardly adequate for overseeing the constantly changing operations of homeless resource centers spread throughout Salt Lake County.
In December 2018, a state audit concluded it was impossible to know which homeless programs were achieving their goals and which were most effective in lifting homeless people back into society. The problem, the audit noted, had to do with “weak management information systems” and poor data-sharing. In the past, officials erroneously gave the impression Utah had solved the problem of chronic homelessness through a “housing first” initiative, but that was inaccurate.
All these months later, no one can definitively say whether the problems noted in the audit have been fixed.
The bill would create a director position with teeth; someone who could coordinate the sharing of data among programs and identify which efforts produce the best outcomes. The public would know how many people actually are being helped out of homelessness.
From the start, the current homeless initiative along the Wasatch Front was designed to have three phases. The first was to put an end to the catastrophic situation surrounding the old Road Home shelter on Rio Grande Street in Salt Lake City. Rampant crime, including murders, had made the area nearly ungovernable and was forcing several nearby business owners to relocate.
Thanks to a concerted, multi-jurisdictional effort led by former House Speaker Greg Hughes, that problem was brought under control.
The second phase was to construct three new homeless resource centers to replace the Road Home, which eventually closed. This phase was mostly a success, although problems appear to have arisen over the funding of these centers.
But the third phase, which involves actually changing lives and moving people out of homelessness, cannot be demonstrated as a success.
We don’t doubt that dedicated service providers have indeed helped people change their lives. We don’t doubt the sincerity of those involved with the Homeless Coordinating Committee.
But organization matters. Accountability matters.
We hope the substitute version of HB394 has been put to rest and that the first version of the bill, the one that creates a director position with real authority, comes to the governor’s desk for his signature soon.