Salt Lake City will soon have its first sanctioned homeless campground. KSL.com traveled to Reno, Nevada, to see a camp that Utah hopes to model in some ways.
The Nevada Cares Campus Safe Camp in Reno contains pods or individual units for people experiencing homelessness on Aug. 7. Salt Lake City will soon have its first sanctioned homeless campground that could be modeled after Reno's. RENO, Nev. — For the first time in Utah, a sanctioned homeless campground will soon be set up in Salt Lake City.
The makeshift camp, with a handful of tents, resembles a fraction of those seen around Salt Lake City. Denton told KSL.com he had visited Salt Lake City just a few weeks prior to discuss the success of Reno's Safe Camp and pulled out his cellphone to show a selfie taken with Mendenhall. Grant Denton, founder of Karma Box, cleans up garbage at a homeless encampment in Reno, Nevada, on Aug. 7. The Nevada Cares Safe Camp model for a sanctioned homeless camp was considered a favorite of Salt Lake City leaders in April, shortly after they visited it. KSL.com visited the Reno camp last month to see how it works and what might be replicated in Utah.
Much like Salt Lake City, the housing affordability crisis has hit Reno hard. The growing population and the dwindling availability of affordable housing has pushed many low-income residents to homelessness. Some found themselves along the banks of the Truckee River. Tents, tarps and makeshift shelters began to group together and grow along the shoreline before spilling into the parks and other public spaces. The embankment resembled what appears along the Jordan River in Salt Lake County now.
"We were thinking that the whole mission would be people come to us because you got illegal camping, legal camping, shelter, and then tier up transitional housing and tier up as you go. But it turns out, it just makes more sense that when somebody comes in here, just to go straight to housing, instead of sending them to another emergency shelter," Denton added.
The Nevada Cares Safe Camp pictured on Aug. 7 in Reno, Nevada. This model for a sanctioned homeless camp was considered a favorite of Salt Lake City leaders in April, shortly after they visited it. KSL.com visited the Reno camp last month to see how it works and what might be replicated in Utah. The pilot will feature pods of 50, with heating and cooling. The sanctioned campground will also feature bathrooms and showers, a kitchen and services, Mendenhall confirmed. The model resembles much of what's been built at the Safe Camp in Reno. The pods are transportable and affordable, she added.
"We do pod checks often so that the pods don't get out of control. That can also cause behavioral issues," Denton said. "What's out of control? Rotting food, things being piled up, hoarding, insects, rodents, all the things go on and on. The thing is ... you want your system to model the system you want them to succeed in. So, we're just gradually doing these little cultural adjustments that take a little bit of time.
The numbers balance out with a decrease in calls to emergency services and an increase in supportive housing, said Dana Searcy in a recent Washoe County Board of Commissioners meeting.
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