The State’s efforts should not come at the expense of dismantling an existing residential and agricultural community that has defined this area for generations. Despite the map of the site being shared, Northpoint is not an empty field. It is a unique community of farmers, landowners, and families who value the rural way of life that has long served as a buffer between city and farmland. It is home to approximately 60 single-family homes, many of whom have lived here for generations, with ~1,500 housing units in the larger associated census tract. Locating a large, centralized homeless campus in this location places an unfair burden on one neighborhood to absorb a statewide issue. 

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As the only agricultural district remaining in Salt Lake City, this proposal threatens to permanently damage the Northpoint community’s way of life:

• Rural properties provide open, unmonitored spaces that could unintentionally attract individuals seeking shelter after being turned away from the campus, raising serious concerns for the safety of families, children, and livestock. 

• Without transit access, those who don’t qualify or decline services will inevitably remain nearby — creating the same spillover effects seen at other shelter sites, including loitering, theft, trespassing, vandalism, and drug activity.

• Local farmers depend on an open waterway adjacent to the proposed campus for irrigation. An unmaintained or polluted ditch from garbage, needles, waste, and other hazards would endanger crops, livestock, and water quality. The Jordan River in Rose Park offers a clear warning of how poor management can harm both the public and the unhoused.

• Efforts to control mosquitoes through pesticide will have harmful effects on crops, livestock, pollinators — including bees raised by neighboring residents — and other wildlife such as deer and migratory birds that call this area home. These chemicals would threaten the delicate agricultural and ecological balance that the State should be protecting, not jeopardizing, through this project.

At a time when Utah faces a housing shortage, introducing a large institutional facility next to an established neighborhood risks forcing out longtime residents through declining property values and reduced quality of life. This directly contradicts the State’s goals for stable, livable communities and undermines Salt Lake City’s planning priorities to preserve open space, trees, and recreational areas. Northpoint deserves protection, not replacement.