The new women's homeless shelter under development in Salt Lake City likely will not be ready to open by July 1 as previously planned, one of the project leaders informed a group of advocates this week.
Preston Cochrane, executive director of Shelter the Homeless, broke the news about the delay during a Wednesday meeting of the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness, according to two people who were present.
The opening of the Geraldine E. King Women’s Resource Center at 131 E. 700 South is part of a larger shift in homeless services across the county. The Road Home shelter in downtown Salt Lake City is due to close this year and give way to three smaller resource centers, including the 200-bed women’s shelter.
The Gail Miller Resource Center at 242 Paramount Ave. in Salt Lake City will accommodate 200 men and women. The third shelter, which will house 300 men in South Salt Lake, is scheduled to open in mid-September, a delay from the original July 1 target that also has forced postponement of The Road Home downtown shelter’s final closure.
Each center will serve specific populations and offer access to health services, a full mobile medical clinic and onsite case managers to help with things like job counseling.
Bill Tibbitts, associate director of Crossroads Urban Center, a local nonprofit that assists low-income Utahns, was present at the meeting and heard Cochrane notify coalition members of the delayed opening.
"I think it is a bit concerning that they've waited until basically two weeks before the new facility is supposed to be open to tell people that there's going to be a delay," Tibbitts said.
At the same time, he said, "I guess it's better to delay than to push forward and do things wrong and make mistakes."
Mike Akerlow, a member of the Salt Lake Valley Coalition's steering committee, also heard Cochrane discuss the shifted timeline Wednesday.
"Knowing how real estate development works, it was a tough timeline to meet. I think they've done a really good job on getting things moving," said Akerlow, CEO of Community Development Corporation of Utah. "I think everybody feels the urgency of this and wants to see them [the resource centers] opened sooner than later, so any delay is disappointing."
Cochrane, whose organization Shelter the Homeless is involved in developing the three new resource centers, is scheduled to hold a briefing Friday on the updated timeline for opening the facilities.
When asked for more information about the announcement, Cochrane said he would wait until the media briefing to comment.
“We’re still finalizing details on the revised timeline,” he wrote in an email.
The Salt Lake Tribune will update this story on Friday.
from The Salt Lake Tribune http://bit.ly/2IelWot
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