Permanent Salt Lake City microshelter community opens for homeless individuals
Oct 1, 2024, 7:00 PM
Steven Malia poses for a photo in his unit at the Microshelter Community, operated by Switchpoint, in Salt Lake City on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024.
SALT LAKE CITY — An experiment into a new kind of transitional housing for unsheltered people did so well, it’s now getting a permanent home.
Utah’s Office of Homeless Services is opening its new permanent microshelter community. A micro shelter is different from a traditional homeless shelter. Instead of several people in one large area, it’s more of a private space.
Last winter, a temporary microshelter community provided housing for 50 people in a temporary location.
But now the new permanent shelter community is ready to go, just west of Interstate 15 at 548 South and 700 West.
Spokesperson Sarah Nielson says the permanent set-up comes with some upgrades.
“We’ve added new site-specific amenities, including ADA compliant restrooms and washing stations,” she said. “We’ve also made it feel more like a community, knowing this is a permanent location. We’ve poured sidewalks and it just has a more community feel than it did at the previous location.”
Does it work?
Nielsen told KSL NewsRadio that those who were part of the program last year were able to get back into housing of their own, and have had fewer run-ins with police. She also says people who used the microshelter last year found pathways back into housing.
