Last month, the Legislature got a handle on how much services like shelters and policing cost taxpayers. But lawmakers have a question they want answered as the state moves closer to closing down the 1,100-bed shelter in downtown Salt Lake City in June 2019.
“Did we get what we paid for?” asked Sen. Jacob Anderegg, the Lehi Republican who leads a committee that is calling for a performance audit of all homeless services. “Was there any analysis on how effective the money was spent in some of these areas?”
A wide group of public agencies this summer started a two-year effort to cut crime and improve homeless services before The Road Home in the Rio Grande neighborhood is closed and three new, scattered shelters are opened.