New Provo City ordinance concerning unhoused people receives public backlash

PROVO, Utah — The Provo City Council got an earful from several unhoused people during a public comment period for the second time. It has yet to take any action on their requests.

There are up to 300 unhoused people in Provo. Those who spoke to the council decried the city’s ordinance that makes them risk arrest and citation for being caught sleeping in public.

Elise Bauer lived in and out of housing while growing up.

“I was born in Provo. By the time I was 2 months old, my family was homeless,” she said to the council. “We were living in a car with me and my brother who was 2 years old.”

Now, Bauer is studying pre-med and hopes to become a doctor.

Another person, a man named Carlos, told the council he became homeless after graduating college, opening a business and having a family.

“Twenty-one years of giving it my best was not good enough,” he said. “So I had to hold things up, close down my State Farm office of 10 years and figure out what street life was like.”

The city provides warming shelters in the winter. There are resources to help with housing, eviction, overnight shelter and health care. However, advocates say there isn’t enough help to meet demand. And, there is no homeless shelter in the city.

Bauer said the ban on sleeping in public and risking arrest or citations is unfair to unhoused people.

“The way that we treat them, telling them to leave our city, telling them that they can’t car camp,” she said. “I think something needs to be done. I feel like we should open some cooling shelters and warming shelters if we can’t open a shelter.”

Tammy Kikuchi is a reporter and anchor for KSL NewsRadio.

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