Ogden city officials raise concerns over location of housing unit for disabled and homeless

OGDEN, Utah — Weber County is getting closer to opening a 25-unit housing project for homeless individuals with disabilities. However, the location is causing a stir within the city.

The location has been a center of controversy for the past month. The plan is to utilize the vacant Aspen Assisted Living on Madison Avenue, but city officials worry that it’s concentrating too much poverty in one place and is too close to schools.

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Andi Beadles with the Weber Housing Authority said this particular housing project needs to be close to county services.

“We needed it to be close to Weber Human Services and close to Division of Workforce Services and the Social Security Office, you know, all of the social service entities that are here local.”

Beadles said they have been working to address the concerns, including reducing the number of units and creating mandatory programming and classes that the individuals would need to be at during the day.

“We kept the unit count lower so that we could try and be sensitive to the city’s concerns,” she said. “And then in addition we were going to move the Weber Housing Authority offices to that location as well so that we could provide additional oversight.”

Beadles said it’s not a shelter or transitional housing but rather permanent supportive housing. It combines rental assistance with case management, and the goal will vary based on the individual.

The vote to proceed with the project is set for next week.

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