South Salt Lake officials were looking to change city code that would give law enforcement more leverage to preventing homeless camps within the city. 

While the city already prohibited public camping at its parks, the code change would expand to all public property. 

City Attorney Josh Collins told the council in early January one of the city’s goals is to provide a safe, clean home and neighborhood and that this ordinance would be better for everyone. 

“This proposed ordinance would help not only individuals that live in the city, but those that are suffering from homelessness and looking for a place to reside by connecting them with services,” he said. “The work our (homeless resource officers) do in the city is second to none and they go out and don’t just seek to punish people but to find and help connect with services.”

The new language defines both camping and public places which includes “any park, playground, street, right-of-way, sidewalk, park strip, alley, or publicly owned building or real property.” 

Collins said the officers previously would have to rely on a “hodge-podge” of codes, county ordinances and regulations to enforce the camping violations. 

Councilmember Clarissa Williams noted the police have already done this for years, and the camps are encroaching onto kids baseball fields. 

“This is not harming anybody,” she said. “We’re just trying to make sure we protect our own children who are in these communities as well. This is just giving our officers a little more leverage to what they can do, but again, our officers have been doing this for many years and they continue to do it.”

The code change is also crucial to show state legislature leaders, Collins said, as part of a larger push to curb camping and panhandling. There is no state law that prevents camping in municipalities so, he said, it relies on local communities to do that themselves. 

Without this ordinance, Collins explained, the mitigation funding for homeless services South Salt Lake receives could be reduced or lost. 

Mayor Cherie Wood, who now serves on the Utah Homeless Services Board representing the shelter cities advisory council, added the funding risk “has been communicated frequently at UHSB meetings.” 

She also added they cannot enforce during a code blue which is when temperatures in specific areas are expected to drop to 18 degrees for two hours or more during a 24-hour period. The alert allows shelters flexibility to find places to shield people from the cold such as during the Jan. 19 weekend. 

Councilmember Corey Thomas said it was unfortunate to tie the funding to this ordinance, but noted the importance of that funding.

“I can’t not support this and risk losing that funding because that helps our police department greatly,” she said. “It funds the homeless resource officers department of the city.” 

She added every legislative session it’s a battle to keep that funding. 

As for how pervasive it is the city, Collins said it “can be a pretty consistent problem along the river and in other places.” 

But Collins and Councilmember Sharla Bynum stressed the quality of the HROs and how they specialize in connecting those experiencing homeless to the resources that can help them. She’s done a ride along with those officers, she said, and felt they were so in tune with the people’s needs. 

“It was eye-opening,” she said. 

Collins said he’s seen them help pack up a person’s gear and drive them to where they needed to go. 

“It’s not just a heavy handed approach that may happen in other places,” he said. “It’s also not a non-approach which may happen in other places. This is a delicate balance the police and the city have to strike because we have dueling interests on multiple sides that we’re trying to manage.” 

The ordinance was expected to pass at the Jan. 22 council meeting (after press deadline). 

“We ultimately want people to have safe housing and so striking that balance is a difficult thing to do,” said Councilmember LeAnne Huff. λ