I assume many individuals comprising the angry mob who screamed at and threatened their good-hearted mayor Wednesday night (and even shouted down a homeless man) will attend one of the dozens of LDS chapels in Draper in the near future.
It would be appropriate, and ironic if talks or lessons at those chapels happened to focus on Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. Or made reference to Jesus’ teaching, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren . . . .” Or perhaps a congregation might sing, A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, and reflect on this line: “I warmed and clothed and cheered my guest And laid him on my couch to rest . . .” Or perhaps discuss Jesus’ teachings about hypocrites who are “whited sepulchers” — rotten on the inside.
Most Draper residents are, no doubt, terrific people. Some, however, would have not just moved to the far side of the road in Jesus’ parable, but would have given the wounded man a good kick as they walked by.
Draper is one of wealthiest cities in the state. Mayor Troy Walker’s shelter sites weren’t even close to residential areas or business districts. I suppose some Draper residents couldn’t even stand the thought of driving 70 miles an hour on the freeway past a homeless resource center serving women and children.
The Angel Moroni on the top of the Draper Temple was probably weeping a little bit on Wednesday night.
I will admit that I’m rather riled up about this matter. I have lived in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City for 10 years, amid many homeless people, elderly people, low-income people, and others with severe challenges.
As Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams makes a valiant effort to find a homeless resource center somewhere in the county, it might be enlightening for the folks in Draper to be aware of what’s going on downtown.
I served for five years as an LDS Bishop with my ward area mostly on the west side of downtown, including Pioneer Park, the Road Home shelter, along with many other social services facilities, and hundreds of units of low-income housing. Over those years, until the LDS Church created a separate church unit for homeless people, I worked with hundreds of homeless people.
To effectively deploy church service missionaries, and as boundary changes were considered, the bishops and stake presidents in the inner city area were asked to list various social services institutions and facilities, including low-income housing, within their ward and stake boundaries.
My stake is the Salt Lake Liberty Stake, which (until boundaries were recently changed) comprised the area south and west of Liberty Park, bordered on the west by the freeway and railroad tracks. It is a relatively small, compact area. My stake president asked each bishop to list the facilities where people with various challenges in their lives draw on church help.
The compilation was rather eye-opening. The cumulative impact is enormous. While the homeless shelter obviously received the most attention, it really was a small part of the totality of the facilities and institutions in my stake serving low-income citizens, people recently out of jail or prison, people with various disabilities and addictions, and so forth.
We who live downtown are fine living amidst these facilities. These institutions and services are obviously vitally important to thousands of our fellow citizens, including many church members. But the concentration of these facilities, the cumulative impact, is remarkable. I believe our neighbors with difficult challenges in their lives would be better served if they were not so concentrated in the downtown/central city area.
In the stake meeting of bishops where we discussed these facilities, I didn’t hear one complaint from these volunteer leaders. To the contrary, the entire focus was on how we can better serve homeless, elderly and disabled folks, and those struggling with addictions, mental health challenges, and people who are recently out of prison.
It was a stark contrast to the strident outcry and opposition when even one of these kind of facilities is proposed for neighborhoods outside of the city.
The combined list of service facilities just within my small stake boundaries amounted to more than 40 institutions (see partial list below). Cumulatively, they are a great challenge, not just for the church, but for neighbors, businesses, and certainly for the government and non-profit social services provider.
The LDS Church is not the main provider of services for most of these people, although it gives enormous support financially and by part-time church volunteers. I greatly appreciate the heroic efforts of the hundreds of full-time social workers and caseworkers who staff the many social services facilities and provide the bulk of the support.
The more than 40 facilities just in my stake boundaries include homeless shelters serving more than 1,000 people, major housing institutions for people with serious mental health issues, two large housing facilities for the chronically homeless, several drug treatment and detoxification centers, women’s shelters, halfway houses, food banks, soup kitchens, medical facilities, several low-income senior housing facilities, dozens of low-income apartment complexes, and numerous run-down, pay-by-the-week motels.
That’s all in one compact part of downtown/central city. Our neighboring stakes also have high concentrations of these facilities.
I fully accept the fact that downtown will always have far more of these institutions than any suburban area. We will always have numerous panhandlers and a lot of people with addictions and mental health challenges. Even if the main shelter is closed, homeless people will still hang out all over downtown.
I am entirely realistic about the homeless challenge. We will never entirely solve it. Some people refuse to be helped. Some people are so irresponsible they are beyond help. Addiction and mental health challenges are incredibly difficult.
But we CAN help a lot of people – one individual or family at a time. The new resource centers will be ideally suited to giving a hand up to people willing to make an effort to better their situations. Remember the starfish on the seashore. We can’t save them all, but we certainly make a difference in the lives of many.
What if Draper was able to really help a few hundred mothers and children each year? One-by-one. Heart-to-heart. Would that be worth having such a facility in city boundaries?
I know what Jesus would say.
This is a partial list of the social services facilities just within one small LDS Stake boundaries in several downtown/central city blocks:
- Road Home shelter provides beds for up to 1,000 homeless people.
- St. Vincent De Paul, daily serving hundreds of homeless people, especially with meals.
- Multi Ethnic Senior Housing, serves mostly elderly, disabled, low-income people.
- Low-income and senior subsidized housing: Jackson Apartments, Romney Park Plaza, Delmar Court, Wayne Court, Liberty Metro apartments, Kier Apartments, Wasatch Manor, Lowell Apartments.
- Sunrise Metro apartments, housing for chronically homeless.
- 4th Street Clinic, providing medical services mostly for homeless people.
- Rio Grande Hotel/Home Inn, low-income housing, serves many people just out of jail or prison.
- Safe Haven, a Valley Mental Health facility housing mentally ill people.
- Volunteers of America, facility, adult detoxification center.
- Volunteers of America, a resource center for homeless teens.
- Rescue Mission Salt Lake, serving homeless, addicted, disabled and poor people.
- Rescue Mission Women’s Center, providing safety from abusive relationships.
- New Grand Hotel, subsidized federal housing; several tenants with mental health issues.
- Park Place Apartments, subsidized housing where numerous refugee families and individuals are located.
- Phillips Plaza Senior Housing and Saint Marks Tower
- YWCA assists women and children, many of whom have been abused.
- A second mental health facility is providing housing and assistance for people of all ages experiencing serious mental illnesses, substance use disorders, and behavior problems.
- Urban Crossroads Center, helping low-income people, food and thrift store.
- Odyssey House, drug, and alcohol rehabilitation programs.
- Chelsea Street, half-way house serving parolees, the homeless, and recovering addicts.
- Palmer Court, housing for chronically homeless.
- Various run-down, pay-by-the-week motels serving low-income renters.
