Community pushes back on new homeless campus plans
Sep 4, 2025, 9:29 PM | Updated: 9:34 pm
A rendering for Utah's new transformative homeless services campus, designed to provide around 1,300 beds, is pictured Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. The facility will be located on about 16 acres that Salt Lake City owns west of Rose Park, near North Salt Lake, and is expected to open in Salt Lake City in 2027. (Office of Homeless Services)
(Office of Homeless Services)
SALT LAKE CITY — Members of the Rose Park community attended a public meeting Wednesday night to voice their outrage with the state’s plans to build a new homeless campus in the area.
Related: Utah to build new homeless development that aims to house 1,300 in Salt Lake City
State Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla was there and lives in this area. She doesn’t believe this is the right spot for this facility because of the lack of services around it. The plan is to build the facility on 15 acres of farmland with 1,300 beds.
“Just getting to a medical facility, its miles away and takes more than 40 minutes to get there. Hours if you are taking public transportation,” said Escamilla.
Many Rose Park residents are not happy and feel blindsided after the announcement. Escamilla said they just want their voices heard.
The need for the homeless campus
Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz in a statement said this campus “has the opportunity to improve public safety, clean up our cities, and change lives,” but he said that’s if it’s done correctly.
Schultz said this project will need “real accountability through treatment, recovery, and long-term stability [or] it will fail like every half-measure before it.”
“We’re also concerned and we want to make sure that is safe for the community as long with the people that will be on campus,” Niederhauser said.
He said they have plans to provide transportation, and the board will be taking public comments.
