H.B. 596 Homelessness Amendments

What this bill does

The bill would create a mechanism to fund the shelter city mitigation fund, which pays cities that host homeless resource centers, after its overflow money runs out April 30. It would let resource centers operate year-round for one year, and require local consent before shelter capacity changes.

Plain-English summary written by AI from the official description. Check the official text below.

Your legislators on this bill

Enter your address to see what your own representative and senator did on this bill.

Quotes come from the official recordings' automatic captions, which can mishear words. Speakers and summaries are identified by AI and can be wrong. Use the ▶ links to check the recording.

Take action

This bill's session is over, but your legislators still want to hear from you. Ideas that died often come back next year.

Enter your address to get your legislators' contact information and a ready-to-send message about this bill.

Every vote

• 7 yes, 0 no, 4 absentHouse Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee: vote to change the bill · Mar 2, 2026Who voted how
• 8 yes, 0 no, 3 absentHouse Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee: Amendment Recommendation · Mar 2, 2026Who voted how
• 8 yes, 0 no, 3 absentHouse Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee: vote to approve it · Mar 2, 2026Who voted how
• 34 yes, 37 no, 4 absentHouse vote, which failed · Mar 3, 2026Who voted how

Hearings and debates

• Mar 2, 2026 House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (58 turns)

  1. Vice Chair (presiding)42:33

     And we will jump right in. Representative Eliason, um, sorry, Eliason. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. I'll get you too mixed up. Yes. I try to mispronounce your own name, but I kind don't even do it if I tried. So Can, but, Um, okay. Uh, go Ahead. You're on.

  2. Rep. Steve Eliason42:53

     Alright. Th Thank you. Um, so, uh, th thank you committee for your time. Um, this bill has been, well, for many years. I've worked on this issue of homelessness. Um, it's, uh, it's a challenging issue and I, I wish the bill would've come out earlier, but, uh, this is actually kind of typical timing. 'cause I try to negotiate with all of the relevant stakeholders in advance to make sure that we get, uh, most of the things worked out. I am gonna be speaking to the, the second sub, um, and then there is also an amendment that, um, I'll, uh, I think will mitigate the kind of any languishing concern. So, um, let me just run through kind of the basics of what the bill does. Um, So come April 30th this year, we run out of mitigation fund, excuse me, of overflow funding. If you're familiar with the, the history of homelessness in the legislature. Years ago, the legislature said, we wanna break up the, the centralized system and move to a scatter site model. Uh, we did that. We now have resource centers throughout Salt Lake County, Illa, Ogden, Washington County. Uh, that's, that's great. They're much nicer facilities. Uh, the goal was that we changed the term from shelters to resource centers. Uh, part of the goal of this bill is to help infuse additional resources to help people step, step out of homelessness and back into our community. Um, but kind of first things first is the funding runs out April 30th of this year. That was one time funding used for Winter overflow. Uh, this bill has a mechanism in it to, uh, to fund that. Um, I, I like to think that the mechanism that, and I've been working with, uh, Representative Clancy on this bill, who, you know, unfortunately for the legislature, he's gonna be resigning here shortly. But we'll be moving into the role of the state homeless director. Uh, I've been working with him, the League of Cities and Towns, the provider shelter, the homeless, um, law enforcement, the Office of Homeless Services on this bill. And, uh, on Friday night, executive Appropriations Committee, uh, actually appropriated, uh, the vast majority of the money, uh, for these purposes in, uh, their, their light lock sheets, for lack of a better term, the motions they took on Friday evening. So, kind of depending on the outcome of a few other things, the earmark on the, uh, tobacco restricted account that's in this bill will be modified pending the, the passage or adjustment of that bill. Um, so what this build also does is we have the resource centers that have been flexing for winter overflow. Um, what we're trying to do here is to say, let's, let's flex for one year on a year round basis. In speaking to Wayne Niederhauser, our former Senate president and the inaugural director of the Office of Homeless Services, who recently retired, one of the most difficult things he had to deal with was come every spring, uh, when they had to evict hundreds of people from the resource centers back into the streets. Now, you'll, you'll get, you know, varying opinions on how to address homelessness, but I believe the common denominator amongst every group on this issue is the least compassionate thing we can do is allow people to sleep in our streets behind dumpsters, in alleys, alleys, corridors, et cetera. Um, so the goal is to get them off the streets and then hopefully get them into services. Keep in mind, the vast majority of people, it's episodic homelessness, where they've lost their job, maybe had a health issue. It's, uh, you know, a a one time period of homelessness and their back. In our community, we have the chronically homeless, which often are very complex, typically dealing with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, criminal histories, et cetera. Um, putting those individuals, particularly those individuals back into the streets, does not foster law, uh, law and order in our communities. Um, so this would require a one year flex, uh, for the, the shelters, the resource centers that, uh, host single men and single women. I've worked with the Shelter cities, of which I represent two of them, because if we're gonna ask them to flex, uh, for the coming year on a, you know, permanent basis for the, for the year, um, we have to address the mitigation formula. The mitigation formula is something the legislature established many years ago where the state funds, uh, the, the fund, I think to the tune of about 7 million. And then the non shelter cities, uh, I think fund about 10 million. That funding is then allocated to shelter cities to, uh, provide additional law enforcement and EMS services surround inside and surrounding the shelters, which is critical to law and order. It's also very important because if you are, uh, uh, a city and the, the state needs additional shelter capacity, what is the incentive to open up a homeless shelter? You're sitting, I I've been to multiple hearings. I actually was on the shelter relocation years committee years ago. These are not, I'd much rather go to a truth and taxation hearing and talk about a 20% tax increase. I mean, that would be much easier than hosting a shelter. Well, if you, because of the mitigation formula, cities that then do step up to host a shelter like my home city, Sandy did recently, they then don't have to pay into the mitigation fund, and they are recipients of those funds. So it's a, we think it's the most unique mechanism actually in America to do this and to, um, allow every city to participate in this. So the, the, the formula in the bill, and then the amendment that, uh, should be online says, okay, for one year, we're going to increase that. But if you, uh, get into the mitigation formula, it's kind of like, uh, looking at the blueprints for a nuclear submarine. It is very complex. And as we, I worked with the league for weeks, feels like months on this. Um, and we realized that there, we need to have a broader stakeholder group to look at the, the formula. What are the incentives for not just shelter, but for, uh, more permanent supportive housing, uh, particularly for individuals with a serious mental illness. So the bill also creates, uh, a working group that will report back by the end of this year on permanent changes to the mitigation formula. So this just, uh, simply flexes, uh, the mitigation formula for, uh, the, the coming year. Another component this bill addresses is, uh, the state has been working with the city of West Valley to use an old, uh, department of alcoholic beverage control store on Railroad Road for winter overflow. Um, this, uh, simply says, let, let's, uh, kind of lock up that, that property for this purpose under the ownership of the state. Um, it does not change the overflow shelter to a permanent resource center that will take additional negotiations with West Valley. There would need to be some capital allocated for remodeling. But we have a kind of a tenuous situation here where, uh, former President Niederhauser, uh, now Nick Coleman, who's the interim director, and soon to be Representative Clancy, have to try to find in conjunction with the local cities and counties, find enough beds to get people off of our streets. So that's a critical component. Again, we're not changing the, the purpose, we're just kind of locking that, uh, property up so it doesn't get sold out from under us, which would then leave a, a big hole in the, the shelter system. It has some technical adjustments, uh, renaming the, uh, shelter Cities Advisory Board, uh, to the Shelter Cities Coordinating Council. Um, there's a very good reason for that, but I, I won't, I can tell you later if you want. But, um, it also amends code Blue by several degrees. It does add, uh, a carefully crafted section related to Code red. Code Red is something we've been talking about for years. That's the opposite of Code Blue, where Code Blue is where the temperature gets to a certain, uh, level that without having to have a lot of zoning and approvals, churches and community centers can flex to get people off the streets. Uh, code red is something that St. George has been asking for for years. This carefully crafts it to where this would only apply to St. George that would allow their existing shelter to continue operating at year round levels. Um, if the temperature hits 105 degrees should not affect any other city. But I've worked closely with St. George, city manager on that component. Um, and then the, um, the bill also, like I mentioned, uh, creates the, the state homeless trust fund that would, if this ex these, this new funding would flow into that section. Um, I'll Juab, I'm just gonna say currently it's in this build now as a backup because EAC has already locked up those funds in their motions on Friday night. So depending on how that progresses, then we'll probably either eliminate the section or simply adjust the earmark to a higher amount. So I won't spend a lot of time on that. So I, those are the basics of what the bill does. It's, it's kind of a, a lot. Um, but I think they're, the, the overview in conclusion is we wanna keep people off our streets. We want to better be able to deliver behavioral health substance use disorder services to the chronically homeless, help them step out of, uh, homelessness and back into our communities and all while keeping our communities that host shelters as safe as can be with the mitigation adjustments that I've discussed. So that will conclude my presentation, Mr. Vice chair, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

  3. Vice Chair (presiding)54:02

     Thank you. Appreciate that. Um, to the committee, we have Representative Whyte.

  4. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte54:09

     Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. And thank you representative for presenting this bill and for your work on this issue, especially over many years that have helped a lot of people looking into this, this bill and all the details you've explained. I just wanna confirm, are you speaking to the first sub amendment one?

  5. Rep. Steve Eliason54:27

     I'm speaking to the first sub and to amendment one? Yes. Both. Yes. Which should be online.

  6. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte54:32

     Perfect. Thank you.

  7. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte54:33

     Looking into that amendment one that is posted, could you go into a little bit more detail and explain lines 9 95 through maybe 9 98?

  8. Rep. Steve Eliason54:47

     I'd be happy to. And I'm gonna phone a friend, uh, Molly from the, the league that we've been working with, so I'll turn it over to her to answer your question.

  9. Molly Wheeler, Deputy Director, Utah League of Cities and Towns54:57

     Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, state your name. Molly Wheeler with the Utah League of Cities and Towns. Thanks for phoning me in. Um, those lines are removing, uh, accelerator provision, I would call it for the mitigation fund beginning in 2027. Um, as the representative mentioned, uh, mitigation is a tricky piece for us to navigate. And the way the bill is drafted right now, it has one provision that allows for a 15% increase beginning this year, and then beginning next year. It's about a 96% increase over those two years. And so since we're creating, uh, in this bill, this bill's creating this task force, it's our effort to say, keep that 15% increase for this year. Um, remove the massive increase for the following year, and then let that task force figure out what contributions should look like moving forward. And let me just add one key reason we're doing this is since the mitigation fund was set up, we've had, uh, at least two additional shelters come online. The MVP shelter in my City of Sandy, and the fi, it's referred to as Finch, the family non congregate shelter in South Salt Lake, um, which were desperately needed for those specific populations, but it had the effect of diluting the, the mitigation fund. And there's been, you know, also growth in that. So the shelter cities are mostly all claiming we're having to subsidize our law enforcement budget because there's not enough mitigation funding to, uh, to meet, meet the need. So that's kind of the genesis behind it. This technical fix we hope resolves any lingering concerns.

  10. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte56:48

      Thank you. And Mr. Vice Chair, if I may ask a follow up to that, thank you for explaining that I've received some communications from different cities throughout the state and the area I have representing about that. Just for clarification too, maybe for those that are listening online or listening in the future, those local annual contributions, where are those contributions from? What is the source of that funding?

  11. Rep. Steve Eliason57:13

      Um, I briefly mentioned that the state puts about, I think, 7 million in, and then cities throughout the state put the other 10 million in and then get, that gets allocated to the shelter cities. I, I, I can't help it, but I'm just gonna say it. Anytime a non shelter city says, oh, we don't like this. I'll say good news, which is what I said to my own city, if you wanna be part of the solution and host a shelter, it doesn't have to be mega shelter, you too can qualify for mitigation funding. I had a neighboring city said, you know what, Steve, we are just happy paying into it. We're good. Um, but it's still available option out there. And, um, interesting. This city council member told me, when mitigation isn't working in the nearby shelter cities, we fill it so we see the need for it. So I hopefully that answers your

  12. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte58:04

      Question. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. You're welcome. Um, I have a quick question for you, if that's all right? Sure. Um, and so we have a fiscal note on the base bill. How does the fiscal note change? Maybe you address

  13. Rep. Steve Eliason58:18

      That. Yeah, so the fiscal note was largely being driven by the need for DHHS to, uh, put a process in place to monitor Code Red because they already have a process in place to monitor Code Blue, um, through the substitute. I expect that, well, I've already been in contact with D-H-S-S-D-H-H-S, I expect that note to go away related to Code Red because we're simply saying it applies to one city. Here's the temperature. You don't need to go hire a meteorologist and buy expensive software to determine when you're gonna trigger code red. It's like it's up to one city or any city that meets the criteria listed in the bill. 'cause we can't call out cities by name, but we carefully crafted it to only apply to St. George.

  14. Vice Chair (presiding)59:03

      Okay. Okay. Um, any other questions from the committee? Seeing none to the public, Actually, Do you wanna Actually first member of the public is here. Okay. We'll start there. I'm already Here, so we'll go for it.

  15. Molly Wheeler, Utah League of Cities and Towns59:17

      Alright. Thank you Mr. Chair. Members of the committee, Molly Wheeler with the, the Utah League of Cities and Towns. Um, I wanna flag that we take positions as a league based on the directive of our legislative policy committee, and that legislative policy committee, um, will consider this bill, including the substitute and the amendment at noon today. So we do not have a formal position as an organization. With that said, I really wanna express appreciation to the bill sponsor for working with us on our concerns, um, including this most recent amendment. Um, this is a tricky issue for us to navigate as we represent all of the cities, including those that host shelters and those that do not. Um, but we really are looking forward to the opportunities ahead of us with the task force to make sure that we are really creating sound policy for all cities on that front. And, um, appreciate the work on all the other provisions in the bill.

  16. Unknown speaker1:00:10speaker not certain

      Um, real quick, did, did you have a position on the first we, on the,

  17. Molly Wheeler, Utah League of Cities and Towns1:00:17

      Um, I, we didn't have a formal position. We were very concerned with some provisions in the first bill that were centered around land use, preemptions and unfunded mandates. I believe that largely through the sec, the first sub as well as the First Amendment, um, I think a lot of our primary concerns will be addressed. Um, again, our LPC still has not taken a formal position, so I cannot definitively say one way or the other, but, um, overall the first sub and amendment gets this bill into a much, uh, more comfortable place for our membership.

  18. Unknown speaker1:00:51speaker not certain

      Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

  19. Pat Fleming, Policy Review Committee Chair, Utah Behavioral Health Commission1:01:09

      Whenever you're ready. Okay. Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members. My name's Pat Fleming. I'm the chair of the Policy Review Committee for the Utah Behavioral Health Commission. And, uh, we support this bill as a priority bill for us. We are the, represent the organizations that do the mental health and the substance use treatment services for this population. We see this as a real good addition to Utah's system for treating these individuals and compassionate way to help these homeless individuals, most, many of which is the sponsor mentioned, have substance use disorders and mental health conditions. And so we, this is a priority for us. We've adopted it, and, uh, so we urge you to pass this out. Thank you.

  20. Vice Chair (presiding)1:01:48

      Okay. Thank you.

  21. Shari Wood, Utah Homeless Services Board1:01:59

      Hi, committee. Um, my name is Cher Wood and I am the mayor of South Salt Lake, but we'll be speaking to you this, this morning. Um, uh, wearing my Utah Homeless Service Board hat for representing all of the shelter cities. Um, we are grateful to the bill sponsor for the changes that were made, specifically with the land use preemption. Um, we appreciate as communities that have these facilities in our city boundaries to be considered a partner and, uh, invited to the table to help find solutions. Um, as we move forward, we're grateful for the task force, um, giving us some more time to look into how we can better support those communities that come forward and, uh, participate in being part of the solution. Thank you.

  22. Vice Chair (presiding)1:02:52

      Thank you.

  23. Laurie Hopkins, Executive Director, Shelter the Homeless1:03:04

      Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Laurie Hopkins and I'm the Executive Director of Shelter the Homeless. We are the organization that owns six homeless resource centers in Salt Lake County, and it represents over 90% of the shelter beds in, uh, the community. Uh, and we partner with Road Home Volunteers of America Fourth Street Clinic to do the client services in those facilities. Uh, HB 5 96 is a comprehensive homelessness bill, and as such, there are many stakeholders that are impacted. This means there are many opinions around this bill and what should or should not be in it. We'd like to thank Representative Eliason for diligently working with all of the stakeholders to find common ground, and we'd respectfully request that the committee favorably recommend this bill. Thank you.

  24. Vice Chair (presiding)1:03:57

      Thank you. Good Morning, committee.

  25. Sarah Nelson, Director of Communications, The Road Home1:04:01

      My name is Sarah Nelson with the Road Home. We, at the road home support HB 5 96. As it strengthens partnerships among the states, city, counties, and service providers, it creates meaningful opportunities to work together to expand emergency shelter and services for high need utilizers of the system. We're thankful to the representative for this bill, and we encourage you to also support this bill. Thank you.

  26. Vice Chair (presiding)1:04:24

      Thank you.

  27. Shawn Guzman, Government Affairs Director, City of St. George1:04:30

      Good Morning, vice chair and members of the committee. Sean Guzman, government Affairs Director for the City of St. George St. George is unique in that we actually, about 13 years ago, saw that there was a problem in our community and the, um, previous provider was not stepping up as we would like to have seen them step up. So we purchased a building and opened our own homeless shelter. We have since, um, spun Switch Point, which we created off into a separate organization. I sat on, I sit on the Switch point board and they operate our shelter for us. Um, you've heard, uh, this morning that there are a lot of technical changes in this bill, but all of them, I will assure you, are very meaningful in moving the ball when it comes to homelessness throughout our state. And we thank Representative Eliason for his hard work on this and listening to all of us. I will just add to what has been said that this provision that allows our shelter to increase capacity on those hot days in St. George is critical to us. Something we've, um, worked with the good representative to try to get past in, uh, in previous sessions, and we're not able to do it. But this is the year that we need to do it. It's been a very warm winter, as you know, we expect a very hot summer. 105 degrees may not seem like a lot, but when you're in St. George with no shade, because we don't have, we're not blessed with the number of trees that you have here. It is very difficult for our homeless population to survive in the washes and out in the desert, where many of them are camping and many of them with families. And we as a city would really appreciate the opportunity to expand the number of individuals that could be into our, in our shelter. This bill would allow us to go up to, uh, the fire coat capacity, and we've already worked with our fire department to identify that number so that we could accommodate everyone and give them a cool place to, uh, live on those hot days in St. George. And we would appreciate your support for this bill. Thank you,

  28. Vice Chair (presiding)1:06:45

      Ms. Sean. Uh,

  29. Unknown speaker1:06:46speaker not certain

      I hear it's a dry heat.

  30. Shawn Guzman, City of St. George1:06:51

      It is a very dry heat, but when you don't have any shade or air conditioning, believe me, uh, dry doesn't really help. I thank you. I understand.

  31. Unknown speaker1:06:59speaker not certain

      Good to see you again, Sean. Good to see You. Yeah.

  32. Nick Coleman, Interim State Homelessness Coordinator1:07:02

      Morning vice chair members of the committee. My name is Nick Coleman here from the Office of Homeless Services, and wanted to take a moment just to, uh, not only think yourselves, but the bill sponsor as well. Um, he has been very diligent, um, in working with us on especially the first substitute, which, um, really goes some distance in addressing a lot of the feedback that our agency, our office, provided as potential areas of concern. Um, and we look forward to working with the representative as he moves forward on this bill. Um, if it, uh, if it moves forward and, um, wanna thank Representative Ellison for his work, uh, on, on, uh, coordinating with us on, on the language. So thank you.

  33. Vice Chair (presiding)1:07:43

      Thanks, Nick.

  34. Devon Kurtz, Public Safety Policy Director, Cicero Institute1:07:49

      Good morning, Mr. Vice Chair. I'm Devin Kurtz, and I represent the Cicero Institute, where I'm the policy director, uh, like, like the others before me. I wanna thank the sponsor for, for being so collaborative with this legislation for us. Uh, you know, we, we had, uh, quite a few concerns with the, uh, scope of the behavioral health funds, but the first substitute addresses almost all of those concerns. We have some, some lingering about the capital improvements, but, uh, I would say 99% of our concerns have been addressed in that substitute. So we thank the sponsor for, for being again so collaborative with that. Um, and I don't think I have anything else. I think that, um, yeah, I would just like to, to, uh, also in that first substitute, the discretion that's given to OHS over the funds, um, is also something that we really wanted to see. And, uh, again, we wanna thank the sponsor.

  35. Vice Chair (presiding)1:08:42

      Thanks, Devon. Appreciate it.

  36. Damon Talbot, Operations Director, Unsheltered Utah1:08:50

      Good morning, chair and committee. I am Damon Talbot, and what is relevant to this is 25 years ago, I myself found myself living on the streets here in Salt Lake. And now I have the honor and privilege of serving many of our unsheltered residents. I am very thankful to the bill sponsor for taking homelessness seriously. It is a extreme issue that obviously has been going on for decades. I appreciate the work that this committee and the sponsor has put towards this. It will save lives. So I just wanna show my support and then I will pass it to our colleague who works with me at Unsheltered Utah.

  37. Merinda Cutler, Executive Director, Unsheltered Utah1:09:30

      Hi Dan. Excuse me. I'm me, Miranda Cutler. I am the Executive Director at Unsheltered Utah, and we are part of the second and second coalition. Um, thanks to Representative Lyon's 2023 Code Blue and Army of churches and volunteers in Salt Lake City, including the first United Methodist Church and St. Mark's Cathedral host churches. We are completing our fourth year of welcoming up to 140 guests per night inside our Code Blue Movie Nights. With help from several LDS Stakes, the Kindness Project, and many others. We offer unsheltered brothers and sisters a warm meal, a blanket, a safe place to rest, and a simple message you matter. We thank the creators of this bill for increasing the code blue threshold from 18 degrees to its 25 degrees. This is lifesaving, 25 degrees will save lives. The people we welcome inside include elderly, neighbors, grandparents, veterans, people with disabilities. We put families in hotels who've lost their footing in a brutal housing market. These are not strangers. They are us. On a harder day, we've seen the cost of leaving people outside in the cold. Over the years, we've watched relatively health, healthy bodies come back to us, missing fingers, even limbs, when guests recently lost his hands, when his tent caught fire as he tried to survive a freezing night. His resilience is remarkable, but no one should have to risk their life just to stay warm. Changing the temperature threshold will prevent hospitalizations, amputations, trauma, and death. A single frostbite can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and amputation can exceed a hundred thousand costs, ultimately born by us. These are preventable tragedies and preventable expenses. So we support the Code Blue, um, threshold change and the creation of the homeless services restricted account that uses cigarette tax revenue. Thank you,

  38. Vice Chair (presiding)1:11:18

      Ms. Keller. Um, could you confirm your first name? Is it Rena Marda Marina? Yes. Okay. Thanks so much. Yeah, thanks. Oh, Okay. Um, we have no one online. And so we'll go back to the committee for further questions. Or action. Representative Ballard,

  39. Rep. Melissa G. Ballard1:11:52

      Uh, motion to adopt first substitute and the first House amendment, or do we need to do them separately? Do

  40. Vice Chair (presiding)1:11:56

      Them Separately. Separate. Okay. First substitute, uh, for HB 5 96 Homelessness Amendments. It's in order. Would you like to speak to that?

  41. Rep. Melissa G. Ballard1:12:04

      Um, I, I just wanna say this is a very structural bill. It's not about accountability. It's not, uh, you know, those kinds of things. I think the structure of it is really important. I know in my discussions with Salt Lake Police Chief and other police chiefs is that they don't want everybody to have to transport these homeless individuals to one campus. They prefer to help work with them on an individual basis, um, where they are. Um, so I think this is really good structure.

  42. Vice Chair (presiding)1:12:31

      Okay. Motions in order, uh, to the sponsor. Wa wa Okay. So we have before us, uh, to adopt HP 5 96. First substitute. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Any opposed? Seeing none. Not passed unanimously. Representative Ballard, you keep going here?

  43. Rep. Melissa G. Ballard1:12:54

      Yeah. Motion to adopt First amendment of HB 5 96.

  44. Vice Chair (presiding)1:12:59

      Okay. Would you like to speak to that? Waive? Okay. Sponsor waive. Okay. So, uh, before us now is to adopt the, uh, amendment to HB 5 96. First substitute. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Any opposed? Okay. That passes unanimously as well. And we'll just keep on going. Representative Ballard

  45. Rep. Melissa G. Ballard1:13:27

      Motion to pass out favorably HP 5 96. First substitute as amended Homelessness amendments.

  46. Vice Chair (presiding)1:13:34

      Okay. Would you like to speak to that?

  47. Rep. Melissa G. Ballard1:13:36

      Um, yeah, I just, like I said, I I think structurally the more that our cities and counties have more tools, um, so that there's not one government entity trying to take care of it themselves. I, I like how the different entities spoke about their collaboration and work that they do on, at local levels. And I think that's where the people are served the best.

  48. Vice Chair (presiding)1:14:03

      Okay. Uh, yeah, we have a, a comment from Representative Hall.

  49. Rep. Katy Hall1:14:10

      Oh, sorry. I gotta push the button. It's alright. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, and I just, I can, I know I came in late, but I just wanted to see if the sponsor could ask, ask, answer a question about the, what he expects the fiscal note to be with the new sub

  50. Vice Chair (presiding)1:14:27

      Go ahead representative.

  51. Rep. Steve Eliason1:14:28

      Gonna toss the dice out here into the center and hope it'll be zero. That's my expectation with the, the changes, Um, even on the ongoing and, Um, yes, because of actions taken by EAC on Friday night where they, they kind of took this idea and ran with it and I've already put it in the budget, so I'll be mod based on other negotiations, adjusting the earmark accordingly. So, you know, there may not be any of those additional funds, but if so, they're on an ear earmark. So it only kick in if those funds, incremental funds come in more than what's currently in the budget.

  52. Vice Chair (presiding)1:15:07

      Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Uh, Representative Whyte.

  53. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte1:15:12

      Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. I'd like to thank everybody who came this morning. All of the organizations that have been involved and the collaborative work that's been put together in this very comprehensive and complicated area of work. So thank you for your work and your support to be able to help meet this need throughout the entire state and representative. Continue to receive compliments the way that you have collaboratively worked with everybody, so appreciate the substitute and the amendment, seeing how everyone's working together to be able to protect local communities while supporting shelters, to expanding the mitigation fund, to providing financial stability and accountability for service providers. So, thank you for everybody's work today.

  54. Vice Chair (presiding)1:15:58

      Thank you, Representative Whyte. Okay. Seeing no other comments, we'll go back to the sponsor.

  55. Rep. Steve Eliason1:16:05

      I just, uh, like to thank, uh, the committee and everybody who's made time to come today in the collaboration. These are not easy issues, but I think Utah is a unique place that shows we can get things done and, uh, do it together. Thank you. Okay.

  56. Vice Chair (presiding)1:16:20

      Thank you. And then we'll give Representative Ballard the last word if she wants it. Waive. Waive. Okay. Thank you. Okay, so we have before us HB 5 96, uh, homelessness amendments. First substitute as amended, and we'll go to, uh, voice vote on that. All in favor of passing this out favorably say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Any opposed? That passes unanimously.

  57. Rep. Steve Eliason1:16:50

      Thank you. Thank you very much. Chair committee. You

  58. Vice Chair (presiding)1:16:52speaker not certain

      Bet.

• Mar 3, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (19 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)1:05:05

     First substitute House Bill 5 96 Homelessness Amendments by Representative Stevie. Listen, this bill was written Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice with the vote of 8 0 3. Representative Eliason,

  2. Rep. Steve Eliason1:05:20

     Uh, th Thank you Mr. Speaker. Motion to move amendment, amendment number two in my name.

  3. Speaker (presiding)1:05:27

     Thank you Representative Eliason. That motion is in order we'd like speak to.

  4. Rep. Steve Eliason1:05:30

     Uh, yes. It just makes it a little tweak to some language negotiated with one of our stakeholders, but it also adjusts the, the earmark in the bill to accommodate what the Executive Appropriations Committee has already done in one of our budget bills.

  5. Speaker (presiding)1:05:48

     Thank you, Representative Eliason. Uh, discussion to the motion to adopt amendment number two under Representative Lyon's.

  6. Unknown speaker1:05:58speaker not certain

     Name none.

  7. Speaker (presiding)1:06:04

     Back to Representative Eliason on the motion to adopt an amendment. Number two, Waive Then waive. Go ahead and place the motion. The motion before is the House adopt amendment number two under Representative Lyon's. Name. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Will that motion passes. The bill has been amended and before the body for its consideration. Representative Elison back to you.

  8. Rep. Steve Eliason1:06:27

     Uh, thank you Mr. Speaker. Uh, this would be what I consider kind of our annual omnibus bill relating to homelessness. Uh, I've worked very closely with, uh, the shelter, the Homeless Committee, the League of Cities and Towns, the Office of Homeless Services, uh, homeless service providers, law enforcement, the Cicero Institute, unsheltered Utah, and our philanthropic community. And last but not least, uh, my good colleague from Provo who will, uh, soon be inheriting, uh, a lot of these responsibilities. Um, the bill does, uh, uh, a number of things to address some of the current issues. Currently, we are still dealing with capacity issues and there are no plans, uh, on the horizon related to a, a new, uh, homeless campus. So this bill is trying to address the issues that we are, are dealing with without appropriating any new money. Um, it allows our existing homeless resource centers to, on a one year basis, uh, uh, flex to, uh, levels that they've done during winter response on, uh, a year round basis. Uh, one really important component of this is we've worked with the, uh, both the shelter cities and the non shelter cities. And the league is the need to, uh, address the mitigation fund that's used to keep law and order, uh, sanitation emergency services in our communities that host a shelter. So it makes a, a one year adjustment to the Shelter cities, uh, mitigation fund, which we've carefully negotiated. We've realized that with the addition of two additional shelters, uh, increased needs, uh, related to law enforcement, that there it needs to be changes made to the mitigation formula. So the bill also, uh, creates a, a work group working with the League of Cities and Towns to, uh, during the interim address these issues come back to the legislature with recommendations as to, uh, how, uh, the, the Homeless Cities Mitigation Formula can be, uh, modified. Um, the bill also makes, uh, some, uh, minor adjustments to code blue and, uh, allows for a limited exemption that only applies to, uh, one city related to code red. Um, the bill also has language in it that is probably going to be irrelevant because the Executive Appropriations Committee has already allocated, uh, significant funds in the budget that we passed earlier. Uh, relating to the, the, the broader issues of homelessness, mental health, uh, winter overflow. I believe those, uh, as those numbers, if those numbers stay the way they are, um, the component of this bill won't kick in. That's what amendment number two addressed. Um, those are the, the basics of of what the bill does. Uh, Mr. Speaker, uh, appreciate the, the broad stakeholder, uh, engagement on this. We've worked very hard to hammer out a lot of the questions and negotiations without taking a lot of committee time or floor time, which I think, uh, demonstrated our, our strong committee vote unanimous vote as well as the broad stakeholder support. So, uh, with that, Mr. Speaker, that concludes my presentation.

  9. Speaker (presiding)1:10:00

     Thank you, representative Eli. And discussion to the bill Representative Peck.

  10. Rep. Nicholeen P. Peck1:10:05

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I appreciate all of the efforts that our state is making in trying to help the homeless population. 'cause I think we all really care about that, and we wanna make sure that we are watching out for the people around us. Tu Willa has a unique experience with the homeless situation that I think relates to this bill and I have some concerns. So in this bill, it looks to me as if we are going to be giving the state the authority to be able to tell municipalities what to do. And I know there's a nod in there in the language that says that with the written consent of a municipality. But in TOA, we had a situation a number of years back where there was, Hey, please take a homeless shelter in your area. And a whole bunch of homeless people are shipped out to toa to our homeless shelter. Our crime rates have gotten up. There's been a lot of problems, almost endless amounts of problems in our area where we felt like we took on the homeless population. There wasn't the funding that actually followed it. All kinds of things like that. And, and our city really felt ill used, um, not just people who were in leadership who were trying to do their best by the project, but also the citizens who really struggled with this. And I have a hard time with passing a bill, even though there's a lot of good things in it and a lot of good intentions in it. I have a hard time with us passing a bill that would give the state oversight into a municipality. And even if there's a nod to, they get a permission slip or a letter, I don't know if the municipalities are oftentimes strong enough or feel like they can even stand up against the state to say, no, we're not gonna do those things. Or if they're not gonna be enticed by that, but then later feel coerced, I think it's gonna come back on us. And I think we should, um, let the municipalities figure out their homeless problems on their own, uh, and, and offer support in a way that isn't going to dictate anything to them.

  11. Speaker (presiding)1:12:38

      Representative Kyle, sorry. Further discussion to the bail Representative Kyle.

  12. Rep. Jason B. Kyle1:12:54

      Uh, thank you Mr. Speaker with the sponsor, yield

  13. Speaker (presiding)1:12:56

      Representative Eliason, will you yield? Yes. Yes. Representative Kyle.

  14. Rep. Jason B. Kyle1:13:01

      Thank you. Uh, I was just wondering if, uh, if, uh, if you could explain the, uh, Mr. Speaker, the, uh, the tax imposed in this part and, uh, uh, can I speak to the, the taxes collected or, or deposited, uh, in the amendment?

  15. Rep. Steve Eliason1:13:18

      Uh, yes. Uh, thank you Mr. Speaker. Uh, that's a, a very good question. So, uh, this bill does nothing to, to raise taxes. Uh, the motions as, as I kind of alluded to earlier, the motions taken by Executive appropriations, uh, are putting significant sums of money into various homeless accounts, uh, very, uh, kind of in line with items in the governor's budget. And this bill, uh, the amendment that was made effectively removes any transfer of funds from the restricted account, uh, as, as a result of the EAC, uh, actions to already fund it. So, um, that earmark should never, I, under current, uh, projections should never be hit, but was kind of there as a backup plan if this other funding didn't come through. So there's nothing to raise taxes or, uh, change any tax policy.

  16. Rep. Jason B. Kyle1:14:21

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank

  17. Speaker (presiding)1:14:25

      you, uh, Representative Kyle. Further discussion to the bill. Seeing none. Back to your Lyon for summation.

  18. Rep. Steve Eliason1:14:33

      Uh, thank you, uh, Mr. Speaker, uh, in, uh, relation to the, one of the comments that was made from the good representative from Twila. This bill does not preempt local land control. Uh, make that very clear. It, uh, any changes in relating to shelter capacity, uh, require, uh, local consent. Uh, the number of these changes are, uh, a strategic compromise with the League of Cities and towns to give us an additional year to work through some of the issues related to capacity and the Homeless Cities Mitigation Fund. I think these are important steps to keep our system, uh, functioning as it is, which, uh, has helped, helps thousands of people step out of homelessness and back to our community, but also provides, uh, hopefully deeper resources for individuals that are chronically homeless and needing additional treatment. Uh, appreciate this, uh, support Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much.

  19. Speaker (presiding)1:15:35

      Thank you, representative Eli. And voting. Now be open on first substitute HB 5 96. Seeing all present, having voting, voting is now closed. First substitute HB 5 96 fails to pass this body with 34 yes votes. 37 no votes will be sent to staff for filing. Okay, representatives, let's go to Representative Teuscher for a motion.