Operation Rio Grande
The number of homeless individuals in Salt Lake City grew rapidly from 2012 to the summer of 2017, when approximately three thousand people were camping and milling around the Rio Grande train station and Pioneer Park just west of downtown. Pointing to rampant criminal activity and open drug use and drug dealing, area business owners complained that Government had abandoned the area.
Responding to the growing problem, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, and the State of Utah decided to close the main homeless shelter in the area—the Road Home (1,100 beds)—by 2019 and to move services to three smaller centers (700 total beds) in different areas of Salt Lake City (2 centers) and South Salt Lake (1 center). Increased services are planned at those centers to address healthcare, education, treatment, employment, and housing. Though a fourth center had been proposed for the Sugarhouse area, Salt Lake City scrapped those plans after neighbors objected. To provide programs and services at the new centers, the Gail Miller family has announced a $10 million dollar challenge grant.
A violent July 2017 in the area—including two murders, a vehicular death, and the assault of a visiting minor league baseball player—led Utah Speaker of the House Greg Hughes to proclaim that the previous “hug a thug” approach had failed and that the State would step in to increase law enforcement activity in the area. Speaker Hughes’ declaration spurred collaboration among relevant jurisdictions. On the morning of August 14, 2017, after weeks of surveillance, 160 law enforcement personnel swept into the area to target the worst criminals and disrupt the drug trade in the area. Within 24-hours, law enforcement arrested 87 individuals.
The sweep was the initial salvo of Operation Rio Grande, a 2-year joint operation of the City, County, State, and the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, which will be spearheaded by Utah Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox. To illustrate the broader-than-Salt Lake City scope of Operation Rio Grande, the State appropriated funding to free up jail beds in Salt Lake County, and 5 surrounding counties agreed to help out by taking offenders snared by Operation Rio Grande (Davis, Weber, Cache, Uinta, and Tooele Counties).
In the first month of Operation Rio Grande, over a thousand arrests were made and conditions in the area significantly improved. To secure control of the area, Rio Grande Street was closed to the public in early September and passage currently is limited to individuals with specific identification.
The goal of the first phase of Project Rio Grande is to restore order to the area by jailing or chasing away the drug dealers and criminals that have been embedded among the indigent population. Also, the law enforcement presence is intended to encourage the partiers—the individuals who have options but swell the numbers on the Block during the warm months—to go elsewhere. With the drug dealers, criminals, and partiers having been sorted out, authorities now are encouraging the homeless population to return to the area, where shelter and some services are available.
The next phase of Operation Rio Grande will be to assess the remaining indigent population, treat addiction and behavioral disorders, and provide other support services. Much of the projected funding of these services turns on the Trump Administration granting the State of Utah a Medicaid waiver that would allow Utah to allocate approximately $100 million ($70 million federal/$30 million state) toward treatment and care. Until then, Salt Lake County has made 37 treatment beds available and promises another 200 shortly.
The final phase of Operation Rio Grande will address employment issues for the indigent population. Steve Starks, Utah Jazz President, is leading public/private efforts to provide the necessary job training.
The anticipated cost of Operation Rio Grande is $67 million: law enforcement ($19 million), jail beds ($15 million), treatment ($19 million), and housing/services ($15 million).