S.B. 246 Utah Homeless Services Board Amendments: transcript

Uh, yes. Madam Chair. And if I can speak to that. Yes. Um, that again, just brings back the, the definition of what the Homeless service campus is not. So that does not include those facilities. That's all the changes are to that bill, to that substitute. Okay.

Oh, sorry. Thank you. Um, Senator Juab. Thank You, Madam Chair. Uh, I move that we delete title and body of, uh, SB 2 46 and replace it with, um, substitute one SB 2 46.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Committee. This basically just says, look, if you're gonna go to a community with a, uh, a service like this, you should include the community voices on the board. Again, this is a non-elected board, so it just says, moving forward, if you're gonna be building a facility, maybe it's in any of your districts, um, you know, then they will have the voice of the community being represented. We do specify that in the case of the West side, 'cause we do have the West Side Coalition. It's not, um, you know, unprecedented. We've done it for Power District and other special districts, or you put a specific organization there. Um, and again, it's just voices representation. People feel you're gonna be, again, doing something. So being in the community, and, and if it's okay, Madam Chair, um, to, has power, my representation, I do have, um, Representative Hollins, Representative Hollins, Thank you. Representative Hollins, district 21.

As Senator Escamilla said that this would give our community a voice. Um, too many times we are having conversations about, um, this community without this community. Um, and what this is going to do is give them an opportunity to have a voice on the board and also provide transparency. Because when we held our town hall meetings, that was one of the biggest things they, um, complained about. They say that they felt that they didn't have a voice, and that they were totally blindsided, and they don't know what's going on. And so we feel that there is someone from the community, and this is what the community is asked for. If there's someone from the community that is sitting on that board, then, um, they feel that they will have a voice and know what is going on.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am Devin Kurtz from the Cicero Institute. We, uh, oppose this, this legislation, um, for, for a couple reasons. I, uh, the, the first is this community does already have representation on the board through its mayor. Um, so we feel that that is, it is satisfying. Um, and, and beyond that we don't see adding members to the board as a constructive exercise, given that over the last few years, the trend has been trying to trim the board down to a more manageable size for the purposes of working out this, uh, and other projects. Given the magnitude of this project, we don't see adding additional people as constructive to that. Thank you.

Jeff Olson, again, from the West Side Coalition. Um, the state legislature has been really good in the past in making sure that there was community representation. Uh, there is, on the Power District, for example, uh, representative of the West Side Coalition as part of the legislation, we're allowed to have a representative there because of the tremendous impact that that has on us, which is primarily positive. So we would really appreciate with something that can be as challenging as this. I mean, all you have to do is walk along, um, go over to Redwood Road in the, in the corner of Redwood Road and North Temple and see the people who've come from the nearby shelter and hang out there in seven 11, whatever. By the way, um, the a and w closed, we don't know that, that's exactly why. But, um, it certainly is harder to get business when you've got challenges. And so that affects us in a way, it doesn't affect the entire city. Um, and so having somebody who really understands the additional challenges of the west side of Salt Lakes, who can be there in the conversations, we would really be grateful to have that. Uh,

Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, I move that, uh, we pass out SB 2 46 first sub with a favorable recommendation.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I, I wanna recognize, um, the, our colleagues sitting here who sponsored the bill, this bill and, uh, can't pretend to say that I understand exactly where you're coming from and, and acknowledge the lift that you've made and the compassion that is shown. Um, I don't, I, I, I don't think this is too much to ask to have a voice and the people deserve that. As far as blindsided or whatever, I have no, I don't know anything about that. On, on the previous bill, it did say that the board made the final decision too, as far as whether you built, and I didn't. I thought that should be probably a legislative, but that's gonna be the funding. And so that was another reason for that. But that wasn't just one, one issue. But, um, on this, I, I think, yeah, we probably should have a larger debate on this discussion. And if, if this we're trying to downsize the board, then fine, maybe we replace someone with this. So I think that's something I, I would like to see if full, full discussion on, so.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just, uh, thank the two, uh, sponsors of this, uh, bill with their compassionate, uh, work.

Wave summation out, and I'm open to always work on whatever language needs. I just think that voice needs to be there. Thank you. Okay.

that when the u the Office of Homeless Services or the Homeless Services Board announces or recommends a homeless service campus, that at that point they have to bring a community member from that area to be part of that, um, board. And more than anything, this is an issue of transparency and representation. Um, there's been made an announcement that impacts my district directly and I think, um, not having a representation from that area, um, makes very uneasy for the constituency and my community that they may be, uh, they, that they're thinking of building a 1500 bed facility in their community. And that there was, there is a very close process to actually make this recommendations that at a minimum moving forward, they should be the voice of a a community member. That's what the bill does. It just says, and it will be impacting anywhere if they're gonna build this large of a facility, uh, for homeless services in a process where there is not open to the public, that if that happens, then they will have to bring, uh, an appointment of an individual that lives in those communities to, at a minimum represent the voices of the community in that area. With that, I'm open for questions. Mr. President,

Thank you Mr. President. Every year there's a big land use bill that comes to us from the land use task force, which is made up of, uh, people who are representing, uh, realtors