- Gov. Cox rejected comparisons of Utah homeless shelter to Nazi concentration camp
- Cox called the proposal the most compassionate homeless policy in the country.
- Cox said he hopes the federal government can cover funding for the expensive project.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox recommitted on Wednesday to the state’s novel proposal to solve chronic homelessness by investing upwards of $100 million in a 30 acre, 1,200-1,600-bed “central campus” near the Salt Lake City Airport.
Cox called funding for the site his “top priority” for the 2026 legislative session during a housing conference at the University of Utah where he pushed back against a New York Times article that cited a source who likened Utah’s campus plan to a Nazi concentration camp.
“This idea that it’s compared to Nazi Germany, I don’t understand that level of thinking, it’s just crazy to me,” Cox said. “As if Hitler were to round up people who were dying on the streets, in their own filth, addicted to drugs and giving them the support they need. There is no comparison at all.”
Over the past two decades Utah has flipped from being the prime example of implementing “housing-first” policies, which provide housing without requirements for sobriety and treatment, to now leading the red-state rejection of that approach.
Efforts to solve homelessness that don’t include public safety and long-term recovery requirements have been an “abject failure,” leading to increased homelessness and overdoses, Cox told an audience of housing experts from around the country.
“We’re truly a non-compassionate society when we think that compassion is allowing people to die on our streets and to make it unsafe for them and unsafe for everyone else in our communities — there is no compassion in that," Cox said.
Utah hits record homelessness
Utah’s annual 2025 Point-in-Time Count found that the number of homeless Utahns had surged to its highest level ever, with nearly 4,600 people on the streets, an 18% increase from 2024 and the largest number on record.
Nearly half of the increase was driven by growth in the chronically homeless population. The number of those who had spent over one year as homeless with a serious disability or addiction increased by 36% from 906 to 1,233.
“We’ve got to make sure that we actually have the resources available, that’s going to be really important, to help people get back on their feet and keep them from hurting themselves and hurting other people,” Cox told the Deseret News.
Recent legislative sessions have seen the state extend involuntary commitment times, prohibit syringe exchange programs in certain areas and enhance criminal penalties for drug possession in and around homeless shelters.
In this approach, Cox has found an ally in President Donald Trump who recently issued an order replacing federal “housing first” funding requirements with a “treatment first” approach that opens the door for increased involuntary commitment.
The next step for shifting the state in this direction requires lawmakers to carve out a significant amount of taxpayer dollars, Cox acknowledged. And he hopes the federal government will cover major portions of the costs.
“We know it’s going to be a tight budget year, but this has to be my top priority, and it is my top priority,” Cox said. “We have to pay for it, and we’re hoping that the federal government is a big piece of that.”
How much does Utah spend on homelessness
Since Utah’s homeless numbers began to climb in 2020, the state has invested more than $266 million on homeless services, according to legislative leadership, not to mention the millions spent on prior “housing first” initiatives.
During the 2025 legislative session, Utah lawmakers approved $3.9 million to launch a second family shelter in Salt Lake County, $5.5 million to expand emergency cold-weather shelters and $16.7 million to shore up public resources in shelter cities.
The session before, the Legislature appropriated $25 million to buy land and construct what they said would be the future backbone of the state’s homelessness response: a campus with an integrated system of treatment resources and recovery programs on site.
But finishing the project could cost more than twice that amount, according to the state’s homelessness office, in addition to around $25 million in ongoing funds — the amount needed to sustain similar projects in Texas and Nevada.
“We just don’t have an option. We have to get this right,” Cox told reporters. “We’ve been failing for so long and I’m not willing to give up. And so this is the best option we have.”
Wednesday’s article in the New York Times cited experts on homelessness policy who argued that Utah’s approach relied too heavily on law enforcement and not enough on increasing psychiatric resources for those who are mentally ill.
By banning outdoor camps and pouring resources into one campus, critics framed the state’s efforts as using coercion to move marginalized individuals to some place where they are less visible, and unable to leave of their own free will.
But Cox framed Utah’s approach as a model for the nation that has garnered the interest of blue states as well because it maintains social order by holding individuals accountable, while also helping them overcome the underlying problems that lead to homelessness.
“I believe it’s the most compassionate policy anywhere in the country right now,” Cox said. “And I’m telling you, there are a lot of blue state governors who are looking at what we’re doing and agree with everything that we’re doing right now.”