SALT LAKE CITY — County homelessness leaders this week announced the opening of the final winter overflow shelter in Salt Lake City after a tense search for additional housing as temperatures cooled.
The Airport Inn Hotel at 2333 W. North Temple adds between 100 and 120 additional beds to the existing sheltering capacity, according to the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness. The shelter, which opened on Monday, is catered toward couples.
The facility remains open 24 hours a day and provides meals on site. Clients can stay for up to 100 days. Switchpoint, which manages the St. George shelter, operates it.
Housing couples together is “a significant and unprecedented step” for overflow shelters in the state and will likely prevent some from remaining unsheltered despite the cold in order to stay together, coalition leaders said.
The coalition faced difficulties finalizing overflow plans this winter as temperatures cooled and the pandemic created the need for space that would allow for social distancing. Homelessness leaders announced the proposed Salt Lake City shelter Dec. 11. The City Council passed an emergency use authorization allowing the hotel to be used as a shelter. During that meeting, city leaders pleaded with other cities to step up and share more of the burden for housing the area’s homeless.
In mid-November, homeless advocates had hoped to finalize plans to use the La Quinta Inn east of the Midvale Family Shelter on 7200 South until Midvale Mayor Robert Hale opposed the plan due to feared impacts of a second shelter.
“We are thankful for the many partners who helped make this additional space available for our homeless friends this winter, and we are focused on the work ahead of us. While winter overflow space is necessary, the long-term solution to homelessness includes increasing access to deeply affordable housing and supportive services and we will continue to work as a coalition to expand those opportunities,” Jean Hill, co-chairwoman of the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness, said in a statement.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said the city “is a willing partner in once again playing a role in supporting the needs of our state’s unsheltered population this winter.”
“While this extra space is crucial for our homeless neighbors throughout these cold months, we are eager to work with the coalition and with cities throughout the county and state, to collectively execute more effective long-term solutions to homelessness,” Mendenhall said.
Regular capacity at the year-round homeless resource centers totals 1,415 beds. The coalition added up to 195 beds to existing overflow capacity through the two new overflow shelters in Salt Lake City and Millcreek. They will remain open until mid-April.