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Sheyla Plancarte
Mrs. Pfeiffer
CE English 2010 3R
A Different Solution

At every corner and every freeway exit there is a homeless person begging for help.

People in the category of low-income workers are on the verge of adding to the homeless

population here in Salt Lake City. The typical solution for legislators in order to help the

homeless issue is to build more homeless shelters or different and improved ones. Yet, the

homeless population is only increasing every year. Homeless shelters are only a temporary

solution because being in a homeless shelter does not change the fact that those people are still

homeless. Lower class citizens struggle with financial stability and contribute to the homeless

population when they can no longer afford their homes or pay their rents on time. The cost of

rent in Salt Lake City is only increasing as our economy continues to increase, yet minimum

wage continues to be $7.25 which has been proven to not be a livable wage time and time again.

These minor issues are increasing the homeless population every day one person at a time. In

order to decrease the homeless population in Salt Lake City, People need to have access to

affordable homes with lower rent costs or minimum wage needs to increase.

It is clear that people need access to affordable housing with lower rent costs because the

homeless shelters are a temporary solution for homeless people. Getting as many people as

possible into homeless shelters isn’t the solution, but helping homeless people have a home of

their own is. Having affordable housing will not only help homeless people no longer be

homeless, but also help those on the verge of becoming homeless. It has been shown that the

homeless shelters are not decreasing the homeless issues because of how many homeless we see
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in downtown Salt Lake City. An Article written by Katie Mckeller helps show how homeless

shelters are struggle to solve the homeless issue, “ Monday's report follows two previous audits,

a review of the funding and expenditures for the homeless initiative and a review of the Road

Home's three facilities, which showed widespread drug use and lax rules enforcement within

shelter walls.(4) Homeless shelters need to help the homeless move away from drug use and

other substances in order to turn their life’s around. A solution to have affordable housing has

been suggested before according to Gregory Scruggs a writer from Real Change Newspaper,

“Utah’s state legislators last year established a commission to look into housing affordability, but

they failed to pass a $100 million bond to build new housing.” (2) Legislator’s should still push

the movement for more affordable housing because it would be a long-term solution for the

homeless issue.

While the homeless population is constantly increasing, as a community we need to look

deeper into the issue to understand why. Minimum wage in Utah is still $7.25 an hour and the

average cost of rent in Salt Lake City is $1,116 as of April this year. (5) People are living in

poverty due to these statistics that aren’t improving with time. These people worry about being

about to make the months rent and when they fail to do so they become homeless, therefor

adding another person to the homeless population in Salt Lake City or more if it’s a family. The

Salt Lake Tribune states, “According to Salt Lake City officials, there is a shortage of about

7,000 affordable dwellings for residents earning $20,000 a year or less.” (1) The average cost of

rent in Salt Lake City makes it impossible for people to even afford a home if they earn less than

$20,000. In order to stop people in poverty form becoming homeless there has to be a solution in

either the cost of rent or minimum wage in Utah.

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Minimum wage in Utah is making it difficult for people in poverty as well. It has been

stated time and time again that $7.25 is not a sufficient wage in order to make a living. We have

been fighting this with our government for years, but how can one expect for someone in a

shelter making $7.25 an hour to move out of the shelter. They would have to get two jobs and

homeless people already have a hard time getting a job. In a Los Angela’s Times article, a low-

income person making $7.50 an hour stated, “Sometimes it feels that you've got to break the law

to survive in this world," he said. "I could make more dealing drugs or trying to get by on people.

My brother, he's a good one, he's always telling me: 'You've got to find the other way.'"(3)

People earing minimum find it so impossible to live of their wage that they have to consider

illegal ways of making more money, which cause them to end up homeless later on when their

method gets them into trouble. Having minimum wage and high cost of rent is only driving more

people into the homeless situation in Utah.

While arguing that either affordable housing needs to be available or minimum wage

needs to increase in order to decrease homelessness, it is understandable that neither one is

solution that can be done in a couple of months. Yet, there isn’t much push for either one of

these solutions or any change happening at all. Increasing minimum wage to $8 is a small

improvement but it would show our community that there will be some kind of improvement

with the homeless issue in Salt Lake City. The temporary solutions of building homeless shelters

are benefitting some, but it does not give them much hope for having a home of their own in the

future.

The homeless population In Sat Lake City is an issue that is only increasing with time

and has to be addressed enough that we see some changes in our community. There are plans

being created for solving the issue, but those are only temporary solutions. There needs to be a
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decrease in homeless people in Salt Lake City, and the only way to see that happening in the

future is to have affordable housing or increased minimum wage. It has been proven that the

homeless shelters are only a temporary solution. The statistics of the average cost of rent in Salt

Lake City is only causing people in poverty to be on the verge of being homeless, and it has been

shown immensely how $7.25 an hour is impossible to live on. One of those two options will

gradually reduce the number of homeless people each year. Even increasing 5 cents to the

minimum shows progress in our community.

Works Cited
1. Smart, Christopher. “Homeless Solutions Are Tough When There Is Little Low-Income Housing in Salt Lake
City.” The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 Feb. 2018, www.sltrib.com/news/2018/02/27/homeless-solutions-are-tough-
when-there-is-little-low-income-housing-in-salt-lake-city/.

2. Scruggs, Gregory. “Once a National Model, Utah Struggles with Homelessness.” January 30, 2019 | Real

Change, Real Change, 30 Jan. 2019, www.realchangenews.org/2019/01/30/once-national-model-utah-

struggles-homelessness

3. Jarvie, Jenny. “What Life Is like on $7.25 per Hour.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 6 Apr. 2016,

www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-minimum-wage-life-20160405-story.html.

4. McKellar, Katie. “Are Utah's Multimillion-Dollar Homeless Efforts Working? Auditors Don't Know Due to

'Poor' Data.” DeseretNews.com, Deseret News, 10 Dec. 2018,

www.deseretnews.com/article/900045808/are-utahs-multimillion-dollar-homeless-efforts-working-auditors-

dont-know-due-to-poor-data.html.

5. . “Salt Lake City, UT Rental Market Trends.” Apartments for Rent – RENTCafé, www.rentcafe.com/average-

rent-market-trends/us/ut/salt-lake-county/salt-lake-city/.
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