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SLCo Homelessness Partnership Gathers with Focused Efforts on Downtown

File: Mayor McAdams Instagram, Michelle Schmitt
Salt Lake County's Homelessness Services Collective Impact Council launched inaugural meeting at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake City Thursday.

Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams announced the kickoff of the county’s Homelessness Services Collective Impact Council Thursday.

The list of those at the first meeting at the Gallivan Center included government, business and nonprofit partners. McAdams says the first steps as a group will be to set a common agenda and define success.

“In the same day I can hear people say what an amazing job Utah is doing in leading the nation on ending homelessness and then I hear people say homelessness is worse than it’s ever been and I think both of those are true,” says McAdams.

The County Mayor says the county is one of the primary funders of the $40 million dollars in total annual spending for homeless services in the Salt Lake Valley.  

“So what we want to do from the services side is look at how well are we doing, are we working collectively,” McAdams says, “Are the various providers who are serving our homeless working and coordinating together to move the needle and to see success?”

McAdams says the county is working with Salt Lake City’s efforts to answer downtown businesses’ and resident’s concerns about homeless people. He says everyone concerned deserves programs that improve their quality of life.

Bob Nelson is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BA in mass communications. He began his radio career at KUER in 1978 when it was still in Kingsbury Hall. That’s also where he met his wife, Maria Shilaos, in 1981. Bob left KUER for commercial radio where he worked for 25 years, and he is thrilled to be back at KUER. Bob and his family are part of an explorer group, fondly known as The Hordes and Masses, which has been seeking out ghost towns and little-known places in Utah for more than twenty years.
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