In the News
New state homeless coordinator Tyler Clancy’s office released data this week, covered by the Deseret News, revealing how deeply Utah’s chronic homelessness and criminal recidivism problems overlap, and how expensive that overlap has become. In Salt Lake City alone, 77% of individuals arrested four or more times last year were homeless. The top 25% of those most-arrested individuals—averaging 11 arrests and 7.5 years on the street—account for $51 million annually in shelter, police, court, and medical costs. Even prior to this data being highlighted, Utah lawmakers had already approved $45.6 million this year to expand the state’s homeless services system.
Here’s Our Take
This data puts a price tag on something we’ve long understood. Chronic homelessness is a crisis of addiction, mental illness, and broken community. Cycling people through shelters, courts, and emergency rooms doesn’t fix any of those. The Other Side Village, a peer-led therapeutic community grown from The Other Side Academy, takes a different approach: sobriety requirements, personal accountability, and employment through self-sustaining enterprises.
Since The Other Side moved into downtown Salt Lake City in 2015, neighbors reported their neighborhood improved and police reported crime went down. Participants have broken out of the cycle, showing lower recidivism and avoiding future homelessness. That track record came from building stronger culture and demanding real accountability, all without government programs or taxpayer money.
Closing
The $51 million figure reflects just one piece of the crisis. Lawmakers have already thrown $45.6 million more at the problem. Clancy is asking the right questions about how to spend it. His focus on root causes is exactly where reform needs to go. But the broader lesson is that private organizations like The Other Side are already addressing those causes without the burden on taxpayers. If Utah wants results, it needs to either learn from what’s actually working, or start opening more doors for private solutions, not just expanding the system the data just indicted.
