UtahStories

When a "resource center" designed to help the temporarily homeless get quickly and easily back on their feet is instead, offering a safe haven for criminals and offenders to victimize the homeless, there is something seriously wrong. According to Bob Danielson, who owns a business just to the West of the Gail Miller Homeless Resource Center, this is exactly what is happening. Danielson says that he personally knows of three homeless individuals who while attempting to go to work, were robbed. Danielson also says that homeless people who are "good people" are very often the victims of "predators" who seek out those who are working to victimize them by not only robbing them but beating them. Many of the homeless people Utah Stories has interviewed have told us that they are afraid of the Homeless Resource Centers because they are so full of unsavory characters: sex offenders and violent criminals. Utah Stories has reached out to the management company (The Road Home) for interviews. They have yet to agree to our interview requests. Read the Entire story. Visit UtahStories.com for more and to subscribe to our free digital newsletter. There you can also support our journalism by subscribing to our print magazine for $2 per month. Follow us on: Instagram @UtahStories Twitter @UtahStories

visit UtahStories.com for more and to subscribe to our free digital newsletter. There you can also support our journalism by subscribing to our print magazine for $2 per month. Follow us on: Instagram @UtahStories Twitter @UtahStories

Danielle Ahn is running for Salt Lake County District Attorney. Working closely with the homeless resource providers she has some inside knowledge about how the "homeless industrial complex" is operating, providing huge amounts of money to homeless service providers without providing services to homeless individuals. She describes the operation as a "revolving door" between government agencies handing out money and non-profits receiving the funds. Learn more by visiting UtahStories.com Subscribe to our free digital newsletter to have the voice of local Utah delivered to your inbox for free, weekly.

The Jordan River is a place for incredible outdoor opportunities, wildlife, recreation, and pathways - and now homelessness. Soren Simonsen, Executive Director of The Jordan River Commission, will discuss all of the challenges in maintaining such an important part of the Wasatch Front.

Jason Brown, VP of Communications & Education at Envision Utah, will talk about how we make a better Utah especially for bikers, walkers, and lower income residents.

Will the real world or the virtual world win? Score one point for the real world with the decline of Zuckerberg's Metaverse.

Danielle Ahn is running for Salk Lake County District Attorney. She recognizes there is a serious problem with criminals who are especially preying on the homeless population.

Bob Danielson is a business owner in downtown Salt Lake City. He has watched his area become plagued with crime and violence since the opening of the Gail Miller Resource Center. Bob will tell us what he believes is the solution to the problems facing Salt Lake City's escalating crime wave.

Today on the show we will have Bob Danielson, who owns a business in downtown Salt Lake City in which he has witnessed completely out of control behavior and fights outside of the Gail Miller Resource Center. Then on the program we will have Danielle Ahn, who is running for Salt Lake City District Attorney, who plans to crack down on the crimes and murders in Salt Lake City.

Amy J. Hawkins moved to the Ballpark Neighborhood in Salt Lake City back in 2013, when she relocated from Washington D.C. to Salt Lake City to teach to medical school students at the University of Utah. Like many transplants, the urban lifestyle of living near a ballpark and near a Trax station appealed to Hawkins. "I was afraid of the snow, so the idea of riding a train to work on snowy days was appealing to me." She also believed that she found, “a great buy in an up-and-coming neighborhood.” In 2016, the proposal for a new Homeless Resource Center in the neighborhood was brought before the Ballpark Neighborhood City Council, for which she was Chairperson. "We had many meetings about it, and we decided to embrace it with all of the promises they were offering." The promises included maintaining a frontage, ensuring that security around the perimeter of the facility. The operators of the Gail Miller Resource Centers were The Road Home. Under their conditional-use permit granted by Salt Lake City they had to be responsible for security safety and security as well as proper upkeep around the facility. Hawkins said that all of their promises have been broken. She says now the Ballpark Neighborood has 9 times the rate of murders than the rest of Salt Lake City; prostitution in the area runs rampant; drug trafficking also goes unpunished, and there is a seedy element that is accosting residents, which is forcing families out. Recently, she said an 11-year-old girl was solicited for sex by an area homeless man. Hawkins says that many of her former neighbors, who she grew tight connections with durring Covid, have moved away to the suburbs for safety. She understands their reasoning, and if things continue to deteriorate, Hawkins says she will also move away. Hawkins also serves on Executive Board for the Pioneer Park Colation. Recently the Salt Lake Bees have threatened to move from Smiths Ballpark. Hawkins says that the Road Home and the operators of the Gail Miller Homeless Resource Center, need to be held accountable for the failure of the Resouce Center, and the huge decline of law, order and safety in the area. The Pioneer Park Colation's new "Grand Plan", released October 6th in a press conference is to create a sanctioned campsite for all current unsheltered-homeless homeless while offering complete "wrap-around services" to get more homeless individuals into treatment programs for addiction and psychological disorders. Once the sanctioned camps are in place they insist that SLCPD enforce the no-camping ordinance laws in Salt Lake City, and begin using the currently empty Oxbow Jail as a "receiving center" -- where all unshelted are given the option to receive services or go to jail.

$200-$300 million is spent every year on Utah’s homeless services. Is this money reducing homelessness? Utah State Auditor with 36 years of experience says “No”. Should the Homeless in Salt Lake City be allowed to camp all day in our parks and on the sides of the streets? Use drugs in front of businesses? For the past few years, Salt Lake City has been saying "yes". Residents have agreed because there is not enough shelter space. But as neighborhoods around resource centers are becoming more crime-ridden, blighted, and full of blatant abuse of the law, residents and business owners are beginning to speak out. Jim Buhanin is the Executive Director of the Pioneer Park Coalition, they believe it will soon be time for police to enforce public camping for the unsheltered homeless. Their choice will be to go to a sanctioned campground, use rehabilitation services or go to jail. The PPC’s Grand Plan is to open a sanctioned campground for the homeless as well as a “transformational Center” similar to Haven for Hope. On the Utah Stories Show, We drilled down to the specifics of both the good and the bad of the Pioneer Park Coalition's Plan. The bad was demolishing and selling the land that the former Road Home was located on. The good is having something other than the obviously failing system that is currently in place. Read more by visiting UtahStories.com

The Pioneer Park Coalition released its plans to curtail the problems of homelessness and crime that are plaguing Salt Lake City. The Pioneer Park Coalition is made up of concerned residents, citizens, and business owners who believe that the homeless policy for Salt Lake City needs to change. Amy J. Hawkins, Chair of the Ballpark Community Council said, people, want to frame this as an either-or situation, which is not. “Either I’m compassionate towards people who are going through the extraordinary trials of homelessness…Or I’m compassionate towards my neighbors who are having to contend with what to tell their children or their dogs eating human waste full of heroin.” She says it should not be an either-or situation they should be able to help everyone. The Pioneer Park Coalition’s Grand Plan was announced along with business owners including Nicole Thomas who chose to leave downtown with her business Latter-Day Bride, which she operated in downtown Salt Lake City for twenty-three years. She says she had to move due to the perpetual problems she suffered from due to the homeless population including a vicious attack on one of her employees. Thomas said, “Salt Lake City’s approach to homelessness and crime is failing. Change must happen now. As business owners, and concerned residents we can no longer stand by and watch this city deteriorate. millions of dollars are being thrown at the homeless crisis.” Thomas believes that housing the homeless “will not work.” emergencies homeless shelters and homeless resource centers are some of the “biggest magnets for crime in the city according to 2021 police statistics. Police were called to the woman’s homeless resource center 1,177 times.” Of the top thirty places where police were called last year, the leading places were where “resources” were being provided for the homeless, which have proven to be magnets for drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and violence. Some of the leaders include the Gail Miller Homeless Resource Center and the Gerald E. King Woman’s Homeless Resource Center and the Magnolia Apartments. All three neighborhoods around these facilities have deteriorated since the facilities opened. Thomas says “full statistical transparency” is needed including holding those who operate these facilities accountable when violence is occurring outside. This accountability was written into their charter when they opened their facilities. But nobody is being held accountable. Later during the questioning period, it was asked what would happen if the facilities couldn’t improve or stop the drug trafficking and violence around their facilities. Scott Howell responded that they should “shut them down.” Unlike all of the above-mentioned facilities, the neighborhood around where the Otherside Academy is located on 700 East and 200 South, has improved and the neighbors have embraced the tenants who occupy the buildings of this successful organization that operates to turn around the lives of ex-convicts and felons. “Accountability is the key. And we now need to start holding all of these organizations and centers accountable for what is happening,” said James Behunin the Executive Director of the Pioneer Park Coalition.

Accountability has been lacking, to say the least, when it comes to tracking Utah's homeless resource centers. James Behunin, Executive Director of the Pioneer Park Coalition, has been auditing government agencies for 36 years and homelessness for the last 4 years. The Pioneer Park Coalition has a new grand plan to reduce crime and homelessness in Salt Lake City. Amy J Hawkins is the chairwoman on the Ballpark Community Council and also serves on the executive board of the Pioneer Park Coalition. The Ballpark Neighborhood has greatly deteriorated since the Gail Miller Resource Center has opened. The Pioneer Park Coalition has introduced a new grand plan to reduce crime and homelessness in the city. You can view that plan here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rwZBDO3MdYF_46TMVM6vqKk5p9ThhIQr/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104268662306829680227&rtpof=true&sd=true

Utah has an “affordable-housing crisis” – There is virtually no affordable housing supply along the Wasatch Front. So why would a moratorium be placed on one project that could have provided it? Utah Stories investigates.

Joe is an Emmy award winning filmmaker who has been focused on many of Utah's most important stories for almost 30 years. We'll talk about the challenges and difficulty of film-making in an information saturated world. We'll also talk about the environment and the outdoors and the difficulty in preserving them. https://www.pbsutah.org/about/staff/joe-prokop/

One developer's struggle to build $100,000 homes in Utah. Continuing conversation with Kait Sorensen and Derek Morton in providing homes to the homeless and survivors of domestic abuse.

Diving into the unique partnership between Kait Sorensen and Derek Morton in providing homes to the homeless and survivors of domestic abuse.

Analyzing the real estate market in Utah and what actions can be taken to create more affordability both from the private sector and the government.

Fewer residents than ever feel secure walking the streets of downtown Salt Lake City while drug deals, drug use and loitering are occuring right on Main Street in downtown. This is in large part due to the clearly untreated mentally disturbed, drug-addicted growing homeless population. Indicative of the severity of the problem is the case of Megan Joyce Mohn, 40, who is seen in bodycam footage released last month by SLCPD. Mohn can be heard saying, “Please don’t shoot!” and “Don’t kill me! I don’t want to die!” Mohn was yelling and wielding an iron bar when officers were called to the scene at 1:30 AM, but her greatest offence after detained was that she did not want to provide the officers with her name. For this, officers proceeded to kneel on her body and put her in ankle irons. During this alternation Mohn fell unconscious and experienced cardiac arrest. She was in a comma for nine days before she died. The coroner's office determined that this asphyxiation lead to her cardiac arrest, which was caused by both methamphetamine and the lack of oxygen. Robin Pendergrast is a New York Times photojournalist stationed in Salt Lake City, he says that Mohn's death is akin to the death of George Floyd at the hands of officers in Minneapolis in 2019. "This should not have happened, the police need to be heald accountable for this." The difficulties in managing the current homeless-population problems in downtown Salt Lake City appear to be overwhelming the Salt Lake City Police Department. Salt Lake City is facing a drug epidemic, a mental health crisis, a housing crisis and as a result a burgeoning homeless population that SLC leaders are unequiped to manage. Salt Lake City is home to the headquarters of one of the largest humanitarian-oriented religions in the world: The LDS Church has been revealed to have over $100 billion in their private securities and holdings including a private mall that cost over $2 billion. Yet despite this wealth and the success of Utah’s tech-heavy economy, Salt Lake City is beginning to resemble our larger neighboring western cities more each day. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, and Las Vegas suffer from homeless populations that are stifling urban populations and local business owners' abilities to go about their business and feel safe. Watch the condensed Utah Stories podcast or the entire episode, where we discuss the extreme difficulty of effectively policing our cities that are facing so many challenges. See More on UtahStories.com Subscribe to our free weekly digital newsletter to have the voice of local Utah delivered to your inbox.

Glenn Bailey, Executive Director of Crossroads Urban Center joins us in the podcast today as we discuss what kind of resources homeless individuals have access to.

How do we preserve the character of downtown and build to accommodate a quickly growing population?

An update on our homeless housing coverage, including credibility to the homeless serial killer, and why we're having trouble getting answers from homeless leaders.

How do we get more unsheltered Utahans off the street? Robin Pendergrast, New York Times Getty Image photographer talks about a woman who died in the hands of Salt Lake City PD. Also discussing homelessness and housing with Troy Mendenhall.