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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah House unaniminously passed a bill Tuesday to require the state to improve its gathering and reporting of data about homelessness, and develop criteria to gauge whether service providers are successfully using funds to help people exit homelessness.
HB298, sponsored by Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, is centered on "data, governance and accountability," he told Utah House members Tuesday.
"We can't simply invest resources and take our hand off the wheel and think it will suffice. I acknowledge HB298 is far from a cure to this complex problem, but it is absolutely a marked departure from the status quo. And I believe that's what our homeless brothers and sisters desperately need," said Clancy.
The bill modifies how data is collected and exchanged between agencies, replaces the Utah Homelessness Council with a smaller board and makes changes to requirements regarding winter response and "code blue" plans (efforts to allow more people experiencing homelessness to find shelter as another cold front sweeps across the state).
It passed 74-0 in the House of Representatives and will make its way to the Senate.
The measure would create a mechanism called "functional zero," which would track new entries to the system, individuals who are already in the homeless services system, and exits from the system. The mechanism would require monthly and annual reports identifying the number of clients with "a successful exit, an unsuccessful exit and no changes in residency."
"We know that if we can't measure a challenge, we can't manage it. The problem with our homeless services data isn't the lack of available data but effective data," said Clancy. "Functional zero, we believe, will help policymakers unravel some of the unique challenges that our homeless community faces."
Additionally, data gathered would be shared throughout homeless services, mental health systems and the criminal justice system. Currently, the Homeless Management Information System is used solely by homeless assistance providers to store client-level information on the characteristics and service needs of those experiencing homelessness. The data is used to coordinate care, manage homeless provider operations and better serve clients.
Sharing the identifying information could pose concerns about confidentiality and trust in providers by those experiencing homelessness, some advocates say, while others regard the effort as superficial.
"Endless data-gathering isn't nearly as important as sending people into the shelters on a regular basis to see what conditions are like. Self-reported data just costs us more time and more money. If you want results, you need homeless secret shoppers to go look at actual conditions. Try to get housing. Try to access medical services. That's where the real story is. This is just a cosmetic attempt to prove you're 'doing something,'" said Wendy Garvin, executive director of Unsheltered Utah.
But Clancy, a Provo police officer by trade, has said he wants to approach the issue from more than one angle, and that each person experiencing homelessness needs different types of intervention.
"Right now our biggest mental health providers are our county jails and our state prison," Clancy told the Deseret News in January. "And that's because certain people, they're very mentally ill and they don't even know that they need help sometimes. And that illness causes them to act out behaviorally, which causes a law enforcement response."
Clancy said he's experienced this outcome firsthand as a police officer and that lawmakers need to rethink how to keep communities safe while also helping those suffering from mental illness.
Additionally, the bill would replace the 29-member Utah Homelessness Council with a nine-member Utah Homeless Services Board.
"It's become unwieldy and clunky and doesn't serve our homeless brothers and sisters effectively," said Clancy. "We believe that this will allow for better collaboration with cities, counties and state leaders to make sure that we know where the money's being spent and if it's being spent productively."
Under HB298, all funding and policy decisions will come before the Utah Homeless Services Board.
The bill also modifies provisions regarding requirements of counties of the first and second class to submit a winter response plan, replacing a targeted "bed count" to meet the need with only a "plan." Additionally, it removes some protections for unsheltered people during code blue events.
Code blue alerts were approved under a state law that became effective in 2023. The alerts are issued, by county, when temperatures in specific areas are expected to drop to 15 degrees, including the wind chill, for two hours or more during a 24-hour period. The alert allows shelters to relax capacity regulations and expand to give officials some flexibility to identify new locations to shield people who are experiencing homelessness from the cold.
The existing law also states that if no beds or other accommodations are available at any homeless shelters located within the affected county, a municipality may not enforce an ordinance that prohibits or abates camping for the duration of the code blue alert and the two days following the day on which the code blue alert ends. It also prohibits the removal of any personal items for survival in cold weather, including clothing, blankets, tents, sleeping bags, heaters, stoves and generators.
Clancy's proposed amendments would allow a state or local government agency, including law enforcement or the local health departments, to enforce a camping ordinance during a code blue event even with no shelter available. It also removes heaters, stoves and generators as protected personal items.
"I'm disappointed to see a bill that requires people to move camp in dangerous temperatures," said Garvin, who advocated for HB499 in last year's session after at least eight unsheltered people died that winter.
