Solutions Utah

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Created to address homelessness and its impacts on our community. Solving Utah's challenges together

10/14/2026

October is Substance Use Prevention Month. 💙

Addiction and homelessness are deeply connected, and so are their solutions. Stable housing makes recovery possible. Recovery makes stable housing last.

This month, we’re focusing on three truths:

🔹 Prevention works. Strong families, schools, and communities stop problems before they start.
🔹 Recovery is possible. Every day, Utahns rebuild their lives.
🔹 Stigma keeps people from getting help. Compassion opens the door.

Follow along all month as we share stories, resources, and constructive solutions.

Need help for yourself or someone you love? The SAMHSA National Helpline is free, confidential, and available 24/7: 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

10/12/2026

Utah has lost one of its great hearts.

Pamela Atkinson spent more than four decades walking alongside Utahns experiencing homelessness, poverty, and hardship. She advised governors and lawmakers, but she was just as at home in a shelter, a clinic, or a camp along the river, often with blankets and supplies in her car and her personal phone number in someone’s pocket.

She grew up in poverty in England and never forgot it. As she put it, “Because I’ve been given much, I should be able to give back.”

Her legacy lives on in the Pamela Atkinson Resource Center, in the policies she helped shape, and in the countless people she treated with dignity, whatever their circumstances. The best way we can honor her is to keep showing up for one another.

Thank you, Pamela. Rest well.

Funeral services will be held Oct. 30 at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 12 C Street, Salt Lake City.

10/09/2026

Incumbent Sim Gill and challenger Kent Davis face off in a prime time TV special October 22 on ABC4 from 6:30-7 p.m. Solutions Utah is proud to partner with the station and Chief Political Correspondent Lindsay Aerts in bringing this informative program to Utah voters. The importance of this race can’t be overstated. Forty percent of all crimes in Utah are prosecuted through the Salt Lake County DA’s office.

10/08/2026

Dr. Keith Humphreys, Stanford professor and noted researcher on additive disorders, said housing should be a “therapeutic opportunity and a community” with conditions not “an unlimited and individualistic right” in addressing drug addiction and homelessness. Such contingencies include establishing drug-free living conditions. Citing a study of the Oxford House program in the U.S. — a drug-free, learned experience, self-run, and self-supported model — participants showed after two years their rate of abstinence had doubled, income had doubled and two-thirds were less likely to be involved in the criminal justice system versus those in traditional housing first recovery situations. Dr. Humphreys made the remarks to the Utah Homeless Services Board this week.

10/05/2026

Homelessness is not just a Salt Lake City phenomenon. The gap between wages and affordable housing was a focus at the 22nd Annual Homeless Summit in St. George Utah. Carol Hollowell of Switchpoint said in this news report that initiatives are underway to address the problem. https://youtu.be/IjIPlt28wtY?is=d2Vq20El53n4gKDv

10/02/2026

A new state law in California allowing recovery housing providers to maintain drug and alcohol-free environments was hailed by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie as a key to helping more homeless and those with addictions stay on a path to healing. Mayor Lurie has championed the policy for years. While sober-living housing options have been available in California, they lacked funding. This new law will create state money for this rehabilitation model.

10/01/2026

Homelessness looks different in Southern Utah.

Solutions Utah recently learned more about the work being done by Switchpoint and the unique challenges rural communities face when addressing homelessness.

One size does not fit all.

In rural areas, homelessness may be less visible. Some individuals and families may rely on family, friends, churches, vehicles, or temporary living situations rather than shelters.

Solutions require understanding the community, building partnerships, and focusing on prevention. Housing, transportation, access to services, and strong relationships all play an important role in creating lasting change.

Organizations, community leaders, and service providers working together can better meet people where they are and develop solutions that fit the needs of each community.

Representation should include proximity. Listening and learning from those closest to the issue helps create stronger solutions.

09/28/2026

After reviewing new statistics that show a decline in street homelessness in Salt Lake, Devon Kurtz (Devon Kurtz) from the Cicero Institute observed that law enforcement policies and shelter capacity — along with political will — were the contributing factors.

Kurtz also credited a legislative bill making it easier to hold offenders in jail before trial as another key determinant in seeing unsheltered numbers drop almost 20%.

Read Devon’s OP-ED in the Deseret News:
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2026/09/26/salt-lake-city-plan-to-reduce-homelessness-is-working/

09/25/2026

Solutions Utah is on the ground at the 22nd Annual Southern Utah Homelessness Summit today at Utah Tech University.
Great to see Congresswoman Celeste Maloy joining the conversation as service providers, community leaders, and partners come together to tackle homelessness across the region.
Real discussions. Real solutions.

09/21/2026

Today Governor Cox created the Utah Recovery Initiative, designed to better serve those facing addiction, homelessness and mental illness.

The announcement was made at the State Capitol before state officials and representatives from Washington, D.C.

Utah is the first state to pilot the initiative — patterned after a federal Executive Order — that will bring together public and private entities to address these social and health issues. It recognizes the role that those with lived experiences, faith-based entities and the private sector play in these recovery modalities in addition to public and government-funded sources. It also establishes a new Utah Recovery Initiative Council that will oversee implementation of the program.

Executives from Solutions Utah were among the invited guests.

Address

350 N State St
Salt Lake City, UT
84114

Website

http://solutionsutah.org/

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