New plan for homeless: Get help — or go to jail

Pioneer Park Coalition says its plan is ultimately more compassionate, notes that current measures are failing.

Accept services, head to a shelter, stay at a sanctioned camp, or go to jail.

Those are the options that would be available to unhoused Utahns under the Pioneer Park Coalition’s new plan to fight homelessness.

“Salt Lake City’s approach to homelessness and crime is failing,” business owner and coalition member Nicole Thomas said. “Change must happen now.”

The coalition, a consortium of businesses and advocates, released its vision for change at a news conference Thursday morning, revealing a threepoint plan to combat the crisis. It is an approach that members say is ultimately a more compassionate way to reduce crime, transform lives and clear the streets.

The coalition’s policy wish list calls for:

» Providing more housing with supportive services.

» Enforcing laws more strictly.

» Emphasizing accountability.

“Simply put, the time for empty promises and shortterm victories is over,” said Thomas, who moved her business to Bluffdale after