‘Fed up’: SLC mayor answers Utah leaders’ call for plan to ‘restore public safety’

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall releases a plan to address homelessness, crime and drugs during a news conference at the Salt Lake City-County Building on Jan. 16. 2025. (Courtesy of Ashley Detrick for the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office)

This story was updated at 5:43 p.m. with more information from the mayor’s press conference and reaction from state leaders and others.

State leaders demanded. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall answered. 

The day before a deadline given to her by the state’s top Republican leaders, Mendenhall on Thursday unveiled a lengthy, multi-pronged plan to address homelessness, crime and other public safety issues in Utah’s capital city. 

She also issued a call to action to the state, Salt Lake County and other cities to make “system-wide” improvements for not just the state’s homeless network, but also the Salt Lake County jail and the larger criminal justice system.  

The plan comes after Gov. Spencer Cox, House Speaker Mike Schultz and Senate President Stuart Adams sent Mendenhall a letter Dec. 13 expressing frustrations with “disorder” in Salt Lake City and calling the Salt Lake City Police Department “ineffective.” 

They gave the mayor a little over a month to come up with a plan to “restore public confidence, security and safety” in the state’s capital, writing that if “progress stalls or alignment cannot be achieved,” the 2025 Utah Legislature would be prepared with “legislation to increase state involvement and oversight.” 

While unveiling her plan during a news conference on the steps of the Salt Lake City-County Building, Mendenhall — a Democratic mayor who leads a city known as a blue dot in a sea of red in an otherwise highly conservative state — took a tactful rather than defensive tone. 

Though Utah and Salt Lake City’s homelessness problems pale in comparison to other states including California or New York and Salt Lake City police statistics show overall crime fell about 5% in 2024 compared to 2023, Mendenhall took accountability for what she described as “legitimate public safety concerns” outlined in Cox, Schultz and Adams’ letter. 

“Plainly put, we have not done enough in Salt Lake City. And that responsibility lies with me,” Mendenhall said. 

The mayor said the city’s overall crime rate is at a 16-year-low — but “it is also true that the presence of unsheltered individuals, some of whom face severe mental illness can make people feel unsafe, and the impacts of unsheltered homelessness can hurt our communities.”

“Both of these things can be true at the same time,” she said. “Crime can statistically be down across the city. And yet what people see on our streets can make them feel unsafe. And it is our responsibility to address both.” 

Mendenhall also added “we cannot police our way of homelessness, but we can make the public feel safer as we expand system resources to meet the needs of our unsheltered population.” 

“We can and must do better.” 

Rather that viewing the letter as a threat or coercion from the state’s top brass to manage the city to their liking, Mendenhall characterized it as a “welcome invitation with enthusiasm” for “a mayor to bring a plan that could potentially ignite a partnership that is not only required for success, but one we have been asking for.”

She said it marks the first time Utah state leaders offered a “written invitation” to Salt Lake City to collaborate on the “state’s toughest issue” — in advance of the legislative session set to start next week rather than in the middle of it  — with an “explicit opportunity to potentially partner instead of further siloing with legislation.” 

Most of all, though, Mendenhall said, she’s engaging with state leaders because she’s “fed up.”

“Our system is fed up. Our city is fed up. And our police officers are fed up,” she said. “The system does not work for the highest need and highest impact individuals experiencing homelessness. And more must be done to control the cartels and the fentanyl crisis that’s on our streets.” 

Even though Salt Lake City’s efforts “lead the state” on affordable housing, homeless shelter services and policing, “it is evident every single day that on-street camping is still a real challenge,” Mendenhall said, adding that the state’s homeless system lacks capacity to meet current needs. 

A warning to not criminalize homelessness

While facing pressure from state leaders for more enforcement, Mendenhall is also caught between concerns from civil rights and homelessness advocates that warn against criminalizing being homeless. 

In reaction to Mendenhall’s plan, Jason Groth, legal director of the ACLU of Utah, issued a warning. 

“We need to protect the constitutional rights of all individuals, regardless of their housing status,” Groth said. “Any plans that impact our unsheltered communities must respect their civil liberties and dignity. Criminalizing homelessness does neither. We urge state and municipal leaders to appreciate that this approach has consistently failed in our communities, housed and unhoused alike.”

In her speech, the mayor acknowledged being homeless itself is not a crime while also saying homelessness and public safety issues overlap.

“Let me be clear,” Mendenhall said. “Being unsheltered is not a crime. But public safety matters and homelessness do intersect, which often comes as a result of mental health challenges, drug addiction, human trafficking and any other number of issues that are often experienced in our unsheltered communities.

“It is a scenario,” she added, “that no city can long endure without catastrophic impacts to all.” 

For its part of the plan, Mendenhall pledged Salt Lake City will be “unrelenting in combating crime and holding those who commit crimes accountable.” At the same time, though, she promised “people experiencing homelessness will be treated with respect and restored to dignity.” 

Mayor urges plan must be fully implemented — not partially

Salt Lake City will act — but the mayor also warned that it can’t “act alone” for the plan to work. She said it is not an “a la carte menu” leaders can pick and choose from, but rather one that needs to be implemented holistically. 

“If we take these bold, clear and necessary actions across systems in concert and not at odds with one another, we will be able to achieve the outcomes we desperately need and expect,” she said. “But if it is not adopted in whole, we will continue to face the struggles we all see on our streets today.”

One of the biggest puzzle pieces Mendenhall urged action on was an increase to Salt Lake County jail capacity — an issue that’s created frustrations for police when offenders they arrest are instantly and repeatedly released because of jail overcrowding. 

For years, Salt Lake County leaders have struggled to address a worsening jail crisis. Despite Utah’s growing population, leaders of the state’s most populated county haven’t increased its jail capacity in more than 20 years. 

This year, an effort to address that crisis came in the form of a $507 million bond placed on the Nov. 5 Salt Lake County ballot — but voters rejected it. Salt Lake County leaders are now regrouping, looking to proceed with their plans but fund them in a different way.

As part of her plan, Mendenhall also called for some legislative recommendations, including dedicating an “ongoing funding stream” for homeless services, mental health and substance abuse treatment, deeply affordable and permanent supportive housing, and jail capacity expansion. 

Lack of increased state funding for all of these issues has been a sticking point for years. Advocates have also said it’s created a bottleneck to move people out of emergency homeless shelters and into permanent supportive housing or other services to better address their needs. 

Many questions remain, including where the city will put the temporary “year-round” homeless campus while state leaders also work to site a permanent property. But Mendenhall declined to take any questions from reporters after her announcement Thursday. She only said she was “happy to connect with you all for questions after you’ve had time to digest the plan” before she left the lectern. 

Asked when action would be taken to implement the plan, a spokesperson for Mendenhall’s office said increased patrols began Sunday. Longer-term actions will be rolled out in coming months, according to the mayor’s speech. 

Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown also promptly left Thursday’s news conference without taking questions. He issued a prepared statement saying he looked forward to implementing the plan. 

“The Salt Lake City Police Department remains fully committed to its duty of enforcing the law, holding offenders accountable, and practicing community-oriented policing. This plan reaffirms that commitment and expectation. It also acknowledges the dedication of our officers and provides actionable recommendations to other stakeholders to support our efforts in reducing crime and promoting safety.”

Brown added that it’s “clear that we desperately need more services, treatment, and housing to support our commitment to long-term public safety.” He said he appreciated Mendenhall’s leadership and the employees who helped craft the plan, along with SLCPD staff. 

“Their insights helped shape a collaborative, evidence-based solutions plan to move us forward,” he said. 

City staff drafted the plan using research based on more than 200 interviews and surveys of service providers, legislators, city residents, employees, business and religious leaders, and more, according to its methodology. 

Will Mendenhall’s plan satisfy state leaders, or could they still move to take control? 

The governor and Republican legislative leaders warmly received Mendenhall’s plan Thursday — but it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to stave off aggressive legislative action. 

Cox, during his monthly news conference held earlier Thursday morning, said he and Schultz met with Mendenhall earlier this week to get a preview of the plan, and while he said he hasn’t yet reviewed it in its entirety, “the meeting went very well.”

“I appreciate Mayor Mendenhall so much,” Cox said, adding she “cares deeply about this issue.” 

He characterized the letter to her as “more collaboration than anything else. There’s a role for the state to play, and we talked about that as well. More will be coming.”

Pressed on what state leaders were prepared to do if Mendenhall’s plan didn’t satisfy them, Cox didn’t offer any specifics. 

“I don’t know that we had in-depth discussions about what would happen if, you know, we weren’t satisfied with it. But that doesn’t matter,” he said. “What we ultimately want is a plan that we can all work on together. And she wants that as well.” 

Cox did not say whether the plan would be enough to satisfy him or legislators from taking further action. 

“Of course, a plan is nothing more than the paper it’s written on. It’s the execution of the plan that’s going to really matter,” he said. “And we look forward to collaborating on that execution as well.” 

Depending on how the plan plays out in coming months, it’s possible that legislation city leaders view as adversarial rather than collaborative could surface during the Utah Legislature’s 45-day session scheduled to begin Tuesday. That depends on whether lawmakers like what they see or not. 

State leaders haven’t explicitly said what they would do, but scenarios have played out in other states including California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom deployed the California Highway Patrol to crack down on crime. Last summer, CalMatters reported it was part of a “larger, slowly unfolding effort to exert state influence on law enforcement in Oakland and other California cities as crime concerns rise during an election year.” 

Questioned whether the letter — which threatened legislative intervention — could be seen as micromanaging Salt Lake City, Cox argued it should instead “be seen as trying to solve a very big problem. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do.” 

“Salt Lake City is our capital city. It’s where the state government resides as well,” Cox said. “So there’s always going to be a unique relationship — there always has been, from the beginning of our state — and that will continue going forward.”

Cox, Schultz and Adams also issued a joint statement Thursday in response to the release of the mayor’s plan. They said they “look forward to collaborating with Mayor Mendenhall, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, and all stakeholders to take meaningful action, implement the plan and restore public safety and confidence in our capital city.” 

The pressure on Salt Lake City from Utah’s most powerful state leaders comes as prominent state and community leaders involved in efforts to transform Utah’s homeless system have criticized Salt Lake City for not doing more to enforce anti-camping ordinances and crack down on drug use and distribution. 

Among them is Randy Shumway, chairman of the Utah Homeless Services Board and vice chair of the Utah Impact Partnership, a group of influential philanthropists who donate funds toward homeless services and have helped lobby the Utah Legislature for more money.

Shumway in recent months has called on Mendenhall and the city’s police chief to do more than they’re already doing, arguing that the fentanyl crisis is particularly sharp in Utah’s capital city. 

Earlier this summer, when on-street camping reached seasonal highs, Mendenhall said it’s “incredibly difficult to continue to wait for more shelter” as state officials continue their secret search for a 30-acre property meant to house a “transformative campus” meant to increase Utah’s emergency shelter bed capacity by up to 1,200 beds. That search is ongoing, and state officials have a deadline of Oct. 1, 2025 for the 1,200-bed shelter to be built. 

What’s in the plan?

In a lengthy written response to the governor, Senate president and House speaker prefacing her plan, Mendenhall described homelessness as the “single greatest challenge” her administration has faced, and one that cities across the nation are grappling with. 

To help “create space” in homeless shelters, jails, housing, treatment beds and the criminal justice system, Mendenhall said her plan focuses on a “high utilizer” population with “more complicated needs than a stay in jail or placement in housing alone can solve.” 

“They include individuals living with mental health needs, substance use disorders, general trauma, those who may be both victims and perpetrators of crime, and a combination of these factors,” Mendenhall wrote. 

She promised the city will “bring significant public safety action” in “high-need areas” around the Jordan River, the Ballpark neighborhood and downtown to ensure they’re “safe, clean and welcoming for all,” and the Salt Lake City Police Department will also “implement consistent foot patrols, increased bike patrols and special operations” in downtown areas. 

“As with any humanitarian crisis, immediate and ongoing action is vital,” Mendenhall wrote, saying her plan calls for “immediate, mid-term and longer-term” actions from not just the city, but other partners. “Coinciding with increased public safety, we must create space in many parts of the system as soon as possible.” 

In addition to increasing patrols, Mendenhall said Salt Lake City is “dedicated to creating supportive shelter options as quickly as possible,” and she said her administration is prepared to “host a temporary location for year-round emergency shelter” while state officials continue to “finalize a permanent campus.” 

It’s not yet clear where that temporary year-round shelter will be sited.  

“This plan is certainly not perfect, nor is it completely exhaustive of opportunities for further improvement,” Mendenhall wrote, calling her plan a “system-wide approach to improve public safety” and address a “humanitarian crisis.”

However, she also issued a warning: 

“To select some recommendations and disregard or only partially implement strategies will not result in the success you expect and all Utahns deserve,” she wrote. “We must embark with collective momentum to effectively address this crisis.” 

The 50-page plan includes 27 specific actions Salt Lake City will take, of which 11 will be “immediate or short-term.” But Mendenhall also listed 23 recommended larger “system changes” involving other jurisdictions including other cities, Salt Lake County and the state, some of which the plan says will require state legislation and additional funding. 

The plan’s executive summary lists four “key barriers” that city, county and state leaders must address to improve crime and homelessness issues: 

• A lack of affordable and supportive housing.
• Inadequate availability of mental health care, substance abuse treatment and other “wraparound services.” 
• Poor coordination among law enforcement, service providers, the courts, and government agencies allowing people to “fall through the cracks.”
• Challenges balancing the needs of people experiencing homelessness with “the safety and usability of public spaces.” 

Mendenhall’s plan is boiled down to six “key actions and recommendations” that the city, county and state must take, including: 

• Improving public safety by getting guns and drugs off of the street: Salt Lake City Police Department will “intensify police presence in downtown and in higher-crime areas” while its Violent Crime Apprehensive Team will “crack down on drugs, particularly fentanyl, and firearm offenses — which are often connected to gang activity.” 
• Quickly increase emergency shelter options: The city will allow the use of city-owned property to site a “temporary location of a new year-round homeless services campus” while state officials continue to work to site a 30-acre homeless “campus” with a deadline to be built by October 1. 
• Increase the consequences for high utilizers: Better coordinate prosecution of “high utilizers” and “prosecutors will seek more stringent penalties.” The plan also says jail overcrowding and frequent pretrial release “must be addressed.”
• Expand mental health, behavioral health and substance use treatment options: “Without this, people cannot move through the system,” the plan says. 
• Invest in housing: Increase availability of deeply affordable and permanent supportive housing “so that emergency shelter and treatment beds are not dead ends.” 
• Commit to a joint plan and execute it: “Nothing in this plan is effective without coordination and solutions at every point in the system,” the plan says, calling for the state, county and “all cities” to commit to “improve the system, hold people accountable, and get them needed help, and save taxpayer money.” 

While her plan was also issued in an effort to stave off legislative control into city affairs, Mendenahall’s plan does include a list of recommendations for legislative action. 

The plan includes these funding asks from lawmakers: 

• Partner with the city and others to “fund and develop a temporary, year-round” homeless campus while state officials continue to site a permanent location. 
• Dedicate ongoing funding streams for homeless services, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, deeply affordable and permanent supportive housing, and jail capacity expansion. 
• Expand the Salt Lake County H.O.M.E Court pilot program, which is currently focused on helping stabilize people with serious mental illness. 
• Increase funding for Utah’s Division of Services for People with Disabilities to improve waitlist times. 

Mendenhall’s plan also included a long list of recommended changes to state law, including: 

• Consider revising state law to allow officers to write a citation or jail offenders for Class A misdemeanor offenses. This change could ease the burden on jails while ensuring offenders receive clear information about their charges and next steps in the legal process, and that the criminal activity is addressed immediately.
• Examine the process requirements for evidence booking in cases of unsheltered arrest.
• Revise and increase penalties for possession of drug paraphernalia in parks.
• Revise state codes regarding involuntary commitment to strengthen discharge planning for those in serious mental health crisis.
• Revise bail and other jail release guidelines to allow for proper sentencing of repeat offenders, particularly those with substance use disorders.
• Lengthen the amount of time that a temporary land use resolution can be enacted in order to facilitate the location of temporary shelters.
• Explore revising the Homeless Shelter Cities Mitigation grant to increase support for public safety needs and camp mitigation activities across a shelter host city. Also explore changes to that grant to better support cities that host multiple homeless service centers.
• Reinstate drug-free zone enhancement to 1,000 feet from a school or house of worship, and remove the requirement that the building be occupied.
• Reinstate annual safety inspection requirements for recreational vehicles.

The plan also includes a list of other “policy considerations,” including proposals to: 

• Shield cities from lawsuits when disposing of personal items during camp abatements. Balance with more direct clean up notice requirements. Mandate standardization of protocols for encampment removal among all jurisdictions.
• Consider jails under a collective asset model in which jails must transfer to neighboring counties before releasing people for overcrowding. Consider a model where counties must hold offenders from other counties while the offender’s home county arranges transport.
• Increase the number of jail beds in Salt Lake County.
• Encourage regional development of residential substance use and mental health treatment beds outside of Salt Lake County to ease the current burden on these resources.
• Require all counties to provide some ratio of year-round emergency shelter and housing services in proportion to their population, projected growth, and number of cost-burdened or housing insecure household units.
• As additional homeless beds come online through campus development, the State Office of Homeless Services could require that sections of Salt Lake County’s homeless resource centers be set aside for people with chronic mental and behavioral health needs, and fund on-site supportive services in accordance.
• Adopt and implement the data-sharing goals in the State’s Plan to Address Homelessness.