Battle For Salt Lake's Depot District

The Battle For Salt Lake's Depot District

On any given day three to five thousand homeless roam the streets of Salt Lake City. At night many find refuge in a shadowy stretch of bars, tenements and warehouses known as The Depot District. For years the area has also been home to the city's social service providers, a place where the homeless are fed, housed and counseled. But that all may be changing. A new plan is afoot to push those service providers and the people they serve elsewhere. It's a plan that would likely create temporary construction jobs and increase property values for a distinct few. But critics say the poorest among us will end up paying a price.

Hang on the street long enough near any homeless community and people will talk to you and in a variety of tones and languages. Some verbal, some non verbal. Like the gentleman who walked up to our camera and gave us the finger for 30 solid seconds before jumping up and kicking the wall next to my cameraman's head. A simple, yet succinct message. This was not our turf. We were interlopers. Outsiders. And every bit as unwelcome as the news we carried, that big changes were coming in the name of progress.

Few were in a mood to mince words this day.

"Leave us alone. Just leave us alone. Go somewhere else. There’s other places that they can build. Why here? They've got all of downtown. They’re rearranging downtown. They got half the block already. Why here? What’s so important about this place? We just want to be left alone.”

What's is so important about this place? Location, location, location.  Ask Salt Lake City Councilman Luke Garrott. He's also chair of the city's Redevelopment Agency and spearheading a plan to turn this 13 acre parcel into a blend of housing, stores and restaurants. It's right across the street from the Inter-Modal Hub. Some are calling these plans sort of a logical extension of the already established and sometimes thriving Gateway.

"We have open space," says Garrott, "and we have redevelop-able land. We have structures that really could make this area really attractive to people who want to live here and work here."

But at what price? Glenn Bailey, Executive Director of the Crossroads Urban Center, is worried that these development plans will simply push the homeless and their providers aside. Does he believe city has a hidden agenda?

“Oh, sure. I mean I don’t know, I’m not going to label it a conspiracy theory or something like that, but I don’t think it’s a secret that the Gateway has wanted those services gone since they opened. I don’t think anyone would dispute that. They might if you talk to them, but I can’t imagine. I think that’s pretty common knowledge. I also think that there’s some folks in the Becker administration who are looking at the Depot development and see the homeless services as being inconsistent with their vision for the area.”

Luke Garrott admits there are some who would turn their back on the homeless, but insists the city would seek a more balanced approach.

"There are people in the community who don’t like to see poverty and want to see it go away, but those of us who are more realistic, including people in the city, know this is part of urban life.”

But in the same breath he acknowledges what Glenn Bailey and the homeless really fear about the future of the service providers.

"That may mean changing their building. That may mean moving some services elsewhere. It may mean doing some things more and other things less. They’ve had the same model for 20 years or so and they know they need to upgrade, to do what they do better. That might mean moving some services elsewhere. It might not.”

It’s that fear of change, the prospective loss of vital services already stretched thin that upsets the homeless and homeless providers the the most. They say its part of the age old scenario where the poor stay poor as the rich get richer.

Two men we talked to outside The Road Home Shelter on Rio Grande Street to say it's a familiar story, that concerns for the homeless are rarely integrated into city development plans. They also say any sense of community they may have is easily swept aside.

“I’ve been here since 96. You know what I’m saying so, everything is real convenient around here. I mean there’s a lot of problems down here, but everybody that’s trying to do something for themselves. Everybody down here is not always bad.”

His friend agreed.

"What they’re really trying to do is just move us out of here. I think that’s the main issue. I mean they’re bringing all these new places in, all these high rises. They have enough. And they’re constantly developing to have more. Why don’t they go somewhere else?"

With the renovation seen as inevitable, some feel the answer lies in what ex-mayor Dee Dee Corradini called the creation of  'funky' neighborhoods, where folks of all social strata live side-by-side in a safe and secure environment. Service providers, like Glenn Bailey say integrating concerns of the poor into restoration planning is the key to ultimately solving the homeless problem, not shipping them to facilities in less desirable areas, as some have suggested.

"I would like to see people create a real urban community of rich and poor and do so in a way that everybody can live together," Glenn says. "I think that’s ultimately the way that we build a stronger community.”