ROCKY ANDERSON: |
[PHOTO CREDIT: MELISSA WARE] DURING THE WINTER OF 2022-2023, ROCKY AND CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEERS SPENT MANY NIGHTS VOLUNTEERING AT THE FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN SALT LAKE CITY, WHICH OPENED ITS DOORS TO 85 PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS ON FREEZING WINTER NIGHTS WHEN ALL SHELTERS WERE FULL AND MAYOR MENDENHALL FAILED TO PROVIDE EVEN TEMPORARY SHELTER FOR HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE LEFT IN THE BITTER COLD. PEOPLE WERE DYING OF EXPOSURE AND LOSING TOES, FINGERS, AND LOWER LEGS TO AMPUTATION BECAUSE OF FROSTBITE.
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EFFECTIVE MEASURES TO IMPROVE SALT LAKE CITY’S
RESPONSE TO THE HOMELESSNESS CRISIS
Rocky Anderson
IMMEDIATELY
Protect people from becoming homeless in the first place.
We can achieve tremendous progress as we all come together—government entities at all levels, the business community, philanthropists, and churches—to attain a far better quality of life for residents, visitors, members of the homeless community, and businesses alike.
Please watch and share with friends and colleagues the video linked here, which addresses the crisis facing our entire city and the necessary solutions: www.rocky4mayor.com/2g.
- Eliminate encampments in parks and elsewhere throughout the city by providing a temporary secured sanctioned camp, remote from neighborhoods and businesses (e.g., the former Wingpointe Golf Course), with decent toilets, showers, laundry facilities, storage lockers, three nutritious meals each day, mail service, transportation, and professional outreach/case management workers to transition people out of homelessness.
- Provide comprehensive professional outreach and case management throughout the city for every homeless person on the street, in shelters, or in permanent supportive housing to transition them (depending on their current status) into a sanctioned camp, shelters, treatment, employment, and/or transitional or permanent housing.
- Enforce laws, with diversion from jail to effective treatment whenever possible, implementing the principles of restorative justice to solve problems (e.g., mental illness and drug addiction treatment) rather than maintain the status quo or simply to punish. There should be more focus on the demand side in enforcing drug laws to dry up the market for drugs and eliminate dealers. Return the duties of Salt Lake City Prosecutor to Salt Lake City, with full accountability on the part of the mayor and the administration.
- Provide adequate, vastly improved secure 24/7-all-year overflow shelter space (non-congregate if possible), with property lockers, so that unsheltered homeless people are never again left out in the sweltering summers or freezing winters (causing deaths and frostbite/amputations of fingers, toes, and feet) and avoiding negative impacts for residents/families and businesses throughout the city. Instead of scurrying each year to develop a winter overflow shelter (which traditionally has been inadequate, leaving many people without options other than being on the streets in the bitter cold), and instead of spending millions of dollars on temporary overflow measures, the primary focus (while making sure unsheltered homeless people are afforded shelter from the elements) should be on investing in permanent housing, where the investments will have long-term benefits.
- Provide adequate shelters—away from residential neighborhoods and in close proximity to other homeless services--that are vastly improved and welcoming to homeless people (i.e., safe, clean, without bed bugs, secure, with a respectful environment, and with property lockers); with effective facility and case management; effective transition to treatment, housing, and jobs; accountable to the public, with reporting of metrics of success; and with close proximity to other homeless services (eliminating “scattered sites”) to get unsheltered homeless people off the streets, protect them from the elements and crime, and transition them to housing, jobs, and appropriate treatment.
- Provide adequate residential and out-patient mental health and addiction treatment (for which the County must be responsible, since it receives the funding), including facilities for arrested people who would benefit from mental health and addiction treatment.
- Provide more cost-effective permanent supportive housing, with accountability for tenants, respecting the interests of residents and the neighborhood.
- Provide housing with wrap-around services, like Alliance House, for people with serious mental health and addiction disorders.
- Create a campus where all homeless services—including case management, legal services, a kennel, childcare, mental health and addiction treatment, and job training and placement—will be in close proximity to each other. (A model is Haven for Hope in San Antonio, Texas. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FzfI6gPB0k)
Protect people from becoming homeless in the first place.
- Require that developers relocate people displaced from existing affordable housing by developments.
- Provide abundant mixed-income non-market affordable housing at all income levels. (Quit depending on the neo-liberal “market” approach, where government subsidizes private developers instead of building excellent mixed-income housing itself.)
- Provide subsidies or low- or no-interest loans to help during financial crises for those at risk of becoming homeless.
- Provide accessible, affordable, and safe childcare so people can work to maintain their housing.
- Provide access to food pantries that focus on healthy nourishment.
- Provide adequate and accessible residential and out-patient mental health and addiction treatment.
- Advocate for a higher minimum wage, reform of eviction laws, and ability of municipalities to enact inclusionary zoning ordinances.
- Coordinate with prisons, jails, hospitals, and mental health facilities so no one will be released without housing.
We can achieve tremendous progress as we all come together—government entities at all levels, the business community, philanthropists, and churches—to attain a far better quality of life for residents, visitors, members of the homeless community, and businesses alike.
Please watch and share with friends and colleagues the video linked here, which addresses the crisis facing our entire city and the necessary solutions: www.rocky4mayor.com/2g.
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AFFORDABLE HOUSING
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Rocky Anderson has innovative, evidence-based solutions to provide truly affordable housing to all income levels, including those who require deeply affordable housing in Salt Lake City.
“We know that it can be done. This sense of ‘oh it’s awful’ it’s happening all over the country, it’s absolutely not true, there are cities that are solving these problems that are making great strides in providing adequate housing. We can, and if I’m Mayor, we will provide adequate housing for all who are vulnerable in our community.” –Rocky Anderson 
AS MAYOR, ROCKY GAVE PREFERENCE TO CITY CONTRACTORS WHO PAID A LIVING WAGE. UTAH LEGISLATURE THEN PROHIBITED SUCH A PREFERENCE.
". . . Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson proposed a living-wage ordinance — one that would allow the city to give preference to contractors when they paid above the minimum wage. The Legislature shot down that proposal, arguing that various minimum wages in different communities and living-wage policies would harm businesses."
"In the past seven years, HAND has utilized nearly $30 million from a variety of local and federal sources to make available nearly 2000 units of affordable housing and over 350 units of market-rate housing. The projects HAND [SLC Division of Housing and Neighborhood Development] has completed include. . . transitional housing for homeless veterans. . .the Jefferson Apartments, which provide low-income housing . . . and Sunrise Apartments, a 100-unit housing development for chronically homeless people. . . In recognition of her years of brilliant, dedicated service and successes [in providing affordable housing], [SLC's Director of Housing and Neighborhood Development] LuAnn Clark received the Local Government Service Award from NeighborWorks America." - Rocky Anderson, 2007 State of the City Address
"[H]ousing advocates are joining the mayor's office in criticizing how the [Council's] policy addresses affordable housing in Salt Lake City. . . . Anderson's office maintains the plan could be detrimental to affordable housing projects in Salt Lake City. The city only receives about 10 applications for housing loans each year. Because the number is so low, Anderson's office thinks each request should be weighed on its individual merits and not precluded because it is in a certain census tract."
“We’re just going to have to tell developers ‘you can not come into our community and destroy affordable housing displacing people without providing adequate replacement.’ And I would say what’s adequate is providing more than what’s being destroyed—according to some formula that we can develop. But we’ve always got to be making progress, we’ve always got to be taking advantage of any opportunities to provide greater affordability in terms of housing in Salt Lake City.”
" 'We used to have rail lines running through here,' Mayor Anderson said, 'and it served as an effective barrier between the east and west sides of our city. This is now stunning open space.' The park is a beautiful amenity for this revitalized area and is adjacent to The Gateway apartment and commercial complex. The 392 Gateway apartments were home to members of the news media who covered the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, but today are an important new affordable housing resource for Salt Lake City."
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"The mayor and city council have a solemn duty to be responsible stewards of our neighborhoods and to achieve, through careful, innovative planning and execution: (1) sufficient mixed-income affordable — including “deeply affordable” — housing, with abundant open spaces, as is achieved in many nations around the world with nonmarket housing; (2) a standard of design excellence for a built environment we can all enjoy and of which we can all be proud; and (3) the preservation of the character of our diverse neighborhoods in all areas of our city."
"At the press event, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson spoke about the need for affordable housing, and HUD State Coordinator Julie Fagan highlighted the positive impact that the voucher program would have on the community."
" 'This is going to be remembered in history as a real turning point for how we work with those who are chronically homeless,' said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson."
"[H]ousing authority officials were joined last week by Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon at a press conference announcing the multi-agency plan to save housing for the 90 families [from being evicted from their homes in the face of federal cutbacks to Section 8 housing]."
"[T]hrough our housing rehabilitation program, the outstanding staff in Housing and Neighborhood Development, led so ably by LuAnn Clark, completed the renovation of 155 homes throughout the city, improving their energy efficiency and water conservation, as well as the neighborhoods in which they are located."
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"We need to get away from this neoliberal, market-based approach [to affordable housing]. It’s really corporate socialism, where we keep dumping millions of dollars into the pockets of developers in trade for a few units of affordable housing. The solution in most of the rest of the world is nonmarket housing. The city ought to be using its resources, its borrowing power to build mixed-income housing where people of all different income levels can live together, and then they pay according to their ability to pay. It’s absolutely time we do this." — Rocky Anderson
'Rocky has a plan to cap property taxes, increase green space and green energy and generate truly affordable housing. He has alternatives to raids on the homeless. He’s more a political activist than politician, more a humanitarian than bureaucrat, and more a problem solver than grandstander. Maybe he’ll even figure a way to re-curb our walkways and fill all those holes." - Calvin Jolley, Salt Lake Tribune
". . . Mayor Rocky Anderson drove a backhoe during the groundbreaking ceremony for Library Square Condominiums, an affordable housing complex with 29 units, of which six are designated for low-income buyers. . . 'I do think that there has been a downward trend in terms of the affordable housing from the ’70s up until recently,' Anderson says. '[But] we’ve been focusing very aggressively on adding components of affordable housing in just about everything we support, or in every project in which we participate.' "
"Thanks to the faith of Mayor Rocky Anderson and the City Council, the dream for upgrading the neighborhood along the light rail line is being realized."
"When Mayor Rocky Anderson stood up Friday and paid for his lunch with a speech, suggesting, 'This is going to be viewed in history as a turning point for the homeless,' Nuel Harris felt the mayor was speaking specifically about him."
"Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's recommendations for giving city money to nonprofit groups that provide services such as low-income housing and after-school programs have left some grumbling and others cheering."
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BRIDGE-BUILDING WITH DIVERSE PEOPLE
"And then, as if on Kafka's cue, a yellow-naped Amazonian parrot, perched in the corner of his room, let out a squawk... The strangest thing about Anderson is not that he has a parrot in his office, but that he is in office at all."
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"The Alliance for Unity, the brainchild of two political opposites — industrialist Jon Huntsman Sr., and Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson — brought together community leaders of many faiths, ethnic backgrounds and community interests, including the editor of this newspaper."
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"According to the mayor, diver- sity in practice brings strength to our communities and is not easily accomplished. He says practicing diversity, actually listening and learning from alternative views takes conscious efforts. While difficult to accomplish, diversity builds a society based on respect and equality."
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" 'We both wanted to bring peace to the community over this,' Anderson said. 'He and I would find matters where our viewpoints converged, but there also was some disagreement. Sometimes, there wasn't compromise, but there was a healthy mutual respect, and we approached our disagreements with a healthy sense of humor.' "
“[Rocky] was known nationally and internationally for his environmental, peace and human rights work, while he made sure city services, including policing, were of the highest quality. He also vastly improved our parks, successfully pushed for more public transit, and implemented life-saving bicycle- and pedestrian-safety measures.”
" 'There is sort of a feeding frenzy and I get to be the chum,' [Anderson] says. 'I have never resorted to cheap personal attacks and yet it seems like a lot of legislators are spending a whole lot of time up there doing just that.' "
"Anderson says he has never singled out LDS members, but has rather called for more diversity including religion, race and sexual orientation." Rocky Anderson has spent much of his adult life helping those in need and fighting for the civil and human rights of all. That’s why he received the American Association for Justice’s national In Defense of Civil Liberties Award. His support of equality for the LGBTQ+ community came much earlier than almost anyone in politics. When Rocky supported same sex marriage during his congressional race in 1996, he knew it would probably cost him the election (it did), but his commitment to principled leadership meant more to him than winning an election.
"Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson was honored Friday by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Utah for supporting the state's gay and lesbian community."
"At worst, it would deprive non-English speakers of their rights... Anderson and seven other individuals filed suit against the law just before it went into effect..."
"Anderson drew the association's attention for his advocacy for Utah Hispanics, including opposing English-only laws, supporting immigrant rights in an airport raid in 2001 and opposing deputizing police officers as agents for Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1997."
"Salt Lake City's Mayor is fed up with Utah laws he says are restrictive and ill-conceived. Speaking out today, Rocky Anderson stressed 'Freedom' from public policies he says the Legislature needs to change for the good of the state. Rocky Anderson is taking on the Legislature, calling for change on seven divisive topics he says hurt both the state's image and public safety. Rocky Anderson, Salt Lake City Mayor: 'The image is that this is sort of a whacko repressed place, and that we have all these bizarre laws. We need to get away from that image.' Directly to the point, the mayor wants to boost gun safety, saying state gun laws are inadequate to protect people. He wants to force government contractors to pay a living wage, undoing a law passed at the capitol three years ago. And, he's taking on the alcohol laws again."
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"The city’s energetic mayor, Rocky Anderson, a former Mormon who left the Church at the age of eighteen after what he said was 'an intense period of self-examination,' has made bridging the divide between non-Mormons and Mormons a priority of his administration. 'I believe we’d have a far better community,' he told me, 'if people could break out of their isolation on both sides.' "
"Anderson said he was compelled to agree with the court’s ruling that the city was responsible for controlling conduct on the public sidewalk, not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had imposed a long list of forbidden behaviors. The mayor’s statement came after two closed-door meetings with advisors. The mayor said he would like reasonable and constitutional restrictions on the sidewalk, and would take to the City Council recommendations for so-called time, place and manner rules. 'If, hypothetically, they came up with something that was constitutionally suspect, I would veto it. We’ve had enough of this division in the community,' Anderson said. Anderson also issued a plea that visitors to the plaza 'be peaceful, respectful of others and -- most of all -- kind and friendly in our interactions.'"
Instead of building a bridge over Main Street, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson wants to close a block of the street to traffic.
Closing the block to vehicle traffic "would be a way to unify the development, encourage pedestrian traffic between both halves of it and enhance the other efforts by the developer to make the mall more permeable to pedestrian traffic while still preserving the view corridor and allowing for more sidewalk activity," [Anderson's spokesman, Patrick Thronson] said. 
" 'We commend the mayor, who's here today, for all that he's done to bring about a resolution to that very difficult and serious problem,' President Hinckley said during a speech at a 10th anniversary celebration for the Joseph Smith Memorial Building."
" 'This is a time when we can learn more about the challenges facing these families, especially refugee families,' Anderson said."
"We incarcerate a greater percentage of our population every year, spend more money on jails and prisons, and contribute to the destruction of families and individual lives – all without coming anywhere close to winning the 'war on drugs,' clearing gangs out of our cities, or reducing the incidence of domestic violence."
"Cory Stringfellow, 31, was among 35 inmates whose prison sentences were commuted by Clinton during his last hours in office. Utah's two Republican senators also had lobbied on Stringfellow's behalf. But the Salt Lake couple say it was Anderson who waged a personal, and sometimes lonely, crusade for three years against what they describe as unreasonably long prison terms for drug offenders. That campaign continued last week as Anderson went to Washington, D.C., and publicly asked Clinton to grant clemency for Stringfellow and what might be hundreds of nonviolent drug offenders."
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"Two years after his election, Anderson's job performance polls showed he had turned half of his LDS detractors into supporters."
"The goal of the project is to get the community at large involved in thoughtful conversations about how to get along better, in spite of religious differences. The mayor told KSL the long bitter controversy over Salt Lake City's main street plaza is the impetus behind this project. Rocky
Anderson, Mayor of Salt Lake City: 'I was committed to doing whatever I could to never see the kind of meanness that came about, the hostility that rose above the surface based on differences in religious affiliation.' " 
"On numerous occasions, including statements reported in the Deseret News, I have publicly — and consistently — stated that, of course, the LDS Temple is a major landmark in Salt Lake City, which should be one of our city's primary icons seen by people throughout the world during the 2002 Games. The temple not only signifies the fact that Salt Lake City is the world headquarters for the LDS Church, but it symbolizes much of the heritage of our city and state — a heritage I greatly respect.
We would be making a huge mistake not to show the world the LDS Temple, as it is one of the defining cultural icons of our city. In a Nov. 4, 1999, Deseret News article ("Rocky Not Easing Off"), I was quoted as saying, 'Hey, this is the headquarters of the LDS Church. The temple is the largest tourist attraction in the city. We're not proselytizing. (To hide the temple from view would be) like going to Rome and saying we're not going to show you the Vatican.' " - Rocky Anderson 
"Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called Hinckley "one of those rare people who exuded such tremendous warmth, wit and goodwill, with people of all kinds. 'In my dealings with President Hinckley, he was always incredibly gracious and strove in every way to bring people together while respecting their differences.' Anderson said he always walked away from his interactions with Hinckley 'feeling uplifted and even energized. He had enormous energy and drive, even at a very advanced age and seemed remarkably sharp, always.' "
"Mayor Rocky Anderson, who has been working on ways to tie University events into Downtown, is excited by the collaboration between downtown businesses, Salt Lake City, and the University. 'These tailgate parties will add a whole new dimension to enjoying Ute games,' said Anderson. 'We all want Downtown and the Utes to succeed. These parties are one more way for everyone to get behind the team and for football fans to get behind Downtown. With the TRAX light rail line to take fans to Rice-Eccles Stadium in just minutes, there’s no better place to tailgate than the Gallivan Center or The Gateway.' "
"Mayor of Salt Lake City, Rocky Anderson was integral to convening 46 US Mayors at the Sundance Summit to address climate change in 2005. Here he talks to The Climate Group about how Salt Lake City is reducing its emissions and why cities have a crucial role to play in climate change mitigation."
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wEST SIDE SALT LAKE CITY
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"Rocky vigorously opposes the Inland Port and opposes the current proposal for the warehouse district in the Northwest Quadrant of Salt Lake City. '"Such a horrible idea on so many levels" — former SLC Mayor Rocky Anderson rails against inland port' Salt Lake Tribune, March 7, 2022"
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"'It’s outrageous that Salt Lake City is proposing another warehouse district, which will further degrade our air quality with polluting warehouse development, when dust from the drying Great Salt Lake is increasingly threatening to human health,' Stop the Polluting Port Coalition and Great Salt Lake Audubon wrote in call-to-action emails sent this week."
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"...Anderson believes neighborhood business and walkable neighborhoods would reduce dependence on cars and would be more appropriate for the future of West Side development. We will also talk with Mayor Anderson, existing community leaders, and emerging leaders in the neighborhood and ethnic business community about their ideas for the future of Salt lake City’s West Side."
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"'We want to see an economic development plan for the West Side that helps bring in more mixed housing, including affordable housing, along with neighborhood retail that will bring more diversity and convenience to neighborhoods,' Anderson said."
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"Mayor Anderson proposed trading the city’s easement on the plaza in return for the 2.17 acres and the promise to build a community facility and provide programs for the 'underserved'."
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"But will the infusion of new faces create the “big changes” Wright expects and hopes for? After all, it’s not as if Democrats didn’t have fiery progressives before now. Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson represented that strong-worded wing of the party but had few companions in his party known for their tough talk."
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"The judges also said the sale was 'reasonable' because the city received $5 million for an easement valued at $500,000. The millions will build a center in the west-side community of Glendale."
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"Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson's effort to evict the Union Pacific Railroad from the Poplar Grove and Glendale neighborhoods has been foiled in federal court, for now."
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"...the mitigation plan forbids Union Pacific from traveling faster than 30 mph in the neighborhood and would not allow the railroad to take high-level radioactive waste through the 900 South corridor."
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"...I think he has learned from the hard issues he has faced this past four years. I therefore support the re-election of Rocky Anderson as Salt Lake City mayor." - Edie Trimmer
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" 'Within the next year or two we will be able to reconfigure the Grant Tower tracks and remove the 9th South Union Pacific line from 900 South forever,' Anderson said."
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"[A] major effort that relates to transportation, the environment, open spaces, and quality of life is...Union Pacific taking its trains off the 900 South line..."
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"The battle over renovations at Pioneer Park has pitted Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson against the City Council for years, and now the administration is taking its case to the people."
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" 'We used to have rail lines running through here,' Mayor Anderson said, 'and it served as an effective barrier between the east and west sides of our city. This is now stunning open space.' "
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" 'We're thrilled with the results,' Anderson said. 'There's been a very positive trend for the past several years in terms of overall satisfaction by residents of city services and also the perception of safety in the community.' "
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"For a lot of people, Pioneer Park's best features are overshadowed by a seedy reputation. Changing that image will be tough and Mayor Rocky Anderson is taking on a plan he says both he and citizens want. Rocky Anderson, Salt Lake City Mayor: 'Cities, to a very large extent, can be defined by the kinds of parks and open space that they have.' "
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" 'This new precinct is the embodiment of our community's resolve to stop crime,' Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson told a group of officers, city officials and neighborhood residents attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony."
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"Anderson touts public safety improvements on the city's west side over the past four years. The city recently opened Fire Station No. 9 near the airport and earlier this month opened the Pioneer Police Precinct, 1040 West 700 South."
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"[Archie Archuletta] worked as the administrative assistant for minority affairs as part of former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson’s administration."
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ROCKY'S LETTER TO ARCHIE ARCHULETA AND REMINISCENCES ABOUT THEIR FIGHTS FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
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ROCKY’S ADVOCACY FOR RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSESS, AND FOR ADEQUATE SHELTER AND AN END TO CITY RAIDS AND CONFISCATIONS
Follow Rocky on Instagram
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Salt Lake City streets are riddled with more potholes today than when oxen hauled wagons around town in the late 1800s. Native sights at Liberty Park include junkies who milk needles at Rice Pavilion. Further into the park’s interior, blue smoke billows from a stone fireplace. Originally intended for family picnics, the hearth is now regularly covered by tarps to trap warmth for neighboring tents.
Downtown sidewalks slant asymmetrically toward curbs that crumble into streets that collapse into themselves.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall sanctions raids of the unsheltered in the name of sanitation — as if tactics of abatement resolve filth or homelessness. Tents appear, disappear and reappear as far east as Trolley Square. (I’m old enough to remember when the only sleeping bags to speak of on our streets unrolled on the parade route the night before the Days of ‘47 Parade.)
The City Council drones on about “affordable housing,” but their solutions are soberingly few. Property taxes continue to skyrocket. Landlords raise rents accordingly.
I purchased my first home in Central City in 2001. Today, I’m in my fourth downtown residence — immediately next door to my second and only a few blocks from my first and third.
I love Salt Lake City: our broad streets and attractive foothills, refugee community and growing diversity, local arts and literature, street fairs, farmer markets, the University of Utah and our mature underground music scene.
I stand in awe of the Wasatch, the Oquirrh, and what remains of the Great Salt Lake. Our wondrously beautiful state deserves a clean and thriving and progressive capitol — one that sets standards for other cities to follow instead of offering substandard living. There is so much to preserve here, so much to fix and build upon, so much that Mendenhall has proven she can’t get done.
In May of 2007, I saw then-Mayor Rocky Anderson debate Sean Hannity at Kingsbury Hall. I say “debate” because of Rocky’s fact-based, well-studied responses to each of Hannity’s bombastic claims and ridiculous arguments. Salt Lake needs a mayor with compassion and intelligence and grit, someone who embraces dialogue and transparency. We deserve a leader who champions those who lack privilege. We require a mayor capable of addressing tough issues before the problems of our city outgrow anyone’s ability to fix them.
I recall participating on a Zoom City Council meeting in 2021. I’d spent an afternoon measuring the depth of curb tops to gutter around my Central City/Liberty Wells neighborhood to raise awareness about a real infrastructure problem. The council’s reaction to my report: humorless, self-certain, drab, unresponsive.
“What a waste of time,” I thought afterward, believing still that civic engagement should represent time well-spent.
I voted for Mendenhall based upon a hope that she’d pull us from the wreckage her predecessor, Jackie Biskupski, left behind. Now, thanks to Rocky Anderson’s re-election bid, we can vote for more than hope.
Rocky has a plan to cap property taxes, increase green space and green energy and generate truly affordable housing. He has alternatives to raids on the homeless. He’s more a political activist than politician, more a humanitarian than bureaucrat, and more a problem solver than grandstander. Maybe he’ll even figure a way to re-curb our walkways and fill all those holes.
Sounds like I’m stumping for him, but I’ve never met the man. What do I know about Rocky? His work, his success, his vision. If I’m stumping, and no doubt I am, it’s for the future of our great city.
By Calvin Jolley | Special to The Tribune
Downtown sidewalks slant asymmetrically toward curbs that crumble into streets that collapse into themselves.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall sanctions raids of the unsheltered in the name of sanitation — as if tactics of abatement resolve filth or homelessness. Tents appear, disappear and reappear as far east as Trolley Square. (I’m old enough to remember when the only sleeping bags to speak of on our streets unrolled on the parade route the night before the Days of ‘47 Parade.)
The City Council drones on about “affordable housing,” but their solutions are soberingly few. Property taxes continue to skyrocket. Landlords raise rents accordingly.
I purchased my first home in Central City in 2001. Today, I’m in my fourth downtown residence — immediately next door to my second and only a few blocks from my first and third.
I love Salt Lake City: our broad streets and attractive foothills, refugee community and growing diversity, local arts and literature, street fairs, farmer markets, the University of Utah and our mature underground music scene.
I stand in awe of the Wasatch, the Oquirrh, and what remains of the Great Salt Lake. Our wondrously beautiful state deserves a clean and thriving and progressive capitol — one that sets standards for other cities to follow instead of offering substandard living. There is so much to preserve here, so much to fix and build upon, so much that Mendenhall has proven she can’t get done.
In May of 2007, I saw then-Mayor Rocky Anderson debate Sean Hannity at Kingsbury Hall. I say “debate” because of Rocky’s fact-based, well-studied responses to each of Hannity’s bombastic claims and ridiculous arguments. Salt Lake needs a mayor with compassion and intelligence and grit, someone who embraces dialogue and transparency. We deserve a leader who champions those who lack privilege. We require a mayor capable of addressing tough issues before the problems of our city outgrow anyone’s ability to fix them.
I recall participating on a Zoom City Council meeting in 2021. I’d spent an afternoon measuring the depth of curb tops to gutter around my Central City/Liberty Wells neighborhood to raise awareness about a real infrastructure problem. The council’s reaction to my report: humorless, self-certain, drab, unresponsive.
“What a waste of time,” I thought afterward, believing still that civic engagement should represent time well-spent.
I voted for Mendenhall based upon a hope that she’d pull us from the wreckage her predecessor, Jackie Biskupski, left behind. Now, thanks to Rocky Anderson’s re-election bid, we can vote for more than hope.
Rocky has a plan to cap property taxes, increase green space and green energy and generate truly affordable housing. He has alternatives to raids on the homeless. He’s more a political activist than politician, more a humanitarian than bureaucrat, and more a problem solver than grandstander. Maybe he’ll even figure a way to re-curb our walkways and fill all those holes.
Sounds like I’m stumping for him, but I’ve never met the man. What do I know about Rocky? His work, his success, his vision. If I’m stumping, and no doubt I am, it’s for the future of our great city.
By Calvin Jolley | Special to The Tribune
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ROCKY HAS VIGOROUSLY ADVOCATED FOR SALT LAKE CITY'S HOMELESS COMMUNITY, RESIDENTS, AND BUSINESSES FOR DECADES
HOW MAYORAL CANDIDATE ROCKY ANDERSON WANTS TO DEAL WITH—AND HELP—UNHOUSED UTAHNS WHO RESIST SHELTERS
"First, immediately, and I would do this within two months or sooner after I become mayor, I would put together sanctioned camps — and there would have to be a separate one for families — and include in those camps optional shelter that is low- or no-barrier, where people can come and at least get out of the elements.
At those sanctioned camps — which would include parking for trailers, campers, trucks, wherever people are living — I would make certain that everybody has access to toilets, showers, laundry facilities, a community kitchen and food, and we could participate with churches and volunteers in the community, and homelessness advocates. We put an end [to unsanctioned camping], but we have a humane, decent alternative." – Rocky Anderson 
"Mayor Anderson was there to witness and record the raid when he noticed the man was not wearing shoes. He asked him why he was only wearing socks and the man replied he couldn’t wear shoes because of the condition of his feet. Anderson looked at his feet and immediately said, 'Get in my car. I’m taking you to an emergency room now.' "
"With the spirited, committed leadership of Luann Clark, the Citys Division of Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND) has aided thousands of Salt Lake City residents in obtaining proper housing. In the past seven years, HAND has utilized nearly $30 million from a variety of local and federal sources to make available nearly 2000 units of affordable housing and over 350 units of market-rate housing. The projects HAND has completed include a unique project at our Veterans Hospital that provides transitional housing for homeless veterans; the remarkable Bridge Project on the west side, which provides affordable living and office spaces for artists and cultural organizations; the Jefferson Apartments, which provide low-income housing one block from a TRAX line; and Sunrise Apartments, a 100-unit housing development for chronically homeless people." - Rocky Anderson, 2007 State of the City Address
Throughout 2022 and 2023, Rocky has been filming and recording the stories and experiences of people experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake City. This playlist contains only some of interviews and footage Rocky has filmed. As Rocky continues filming, more interviews and footage will be added to the playlist. There are also videos of Rocky discussing the homeless crisis, solutions, and relating issues. Thank you to all of the people who have shared their experiences, hopes, and heartaches with Rocky as he campaigns for SLC Mayor with the goal of implementing real solutions for homelessness that benefit not only those experiencing it, but that benefit SLC residents, visitors, and businesses alike.
"Anderson added Wednesday that he would stop "cruel" police raids and evictions of homeless people from camps "until there are alternative options for them," instead calling for "secure sanctioned camps" much like Haven for Hope in San Antonio among other reforms."
In this short clip from Utah Stories, host
Richard Markosian and Rocky discuss homelessness and affordable housing and the responsibility of the current mayoral administration for the lack of solutions in Salt Lake City. |
"The opening of the shelter—financed with city, county and state funds—stands in contrast to Atlanta, where in advance of the 1996 Summer Olympics, police arrested 10,000 homeless people. Homeless advocates complained that the tactics were intended to scare the homeless away or cajole them to lay low during the Games. Officials there also offered free one-way bus tickets under a clean-the-streets program euphemistically called, 'Project Homeward Bound.'
Salt Lake City instead is putting out the welcome mat. 'We respect the human and civil rights of everyone, including the homeless, during these Olympics,' said Mayor Rocky Anderson, a former attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. 'We won’t be doing roundups or anything like that. This community is very caring toward the homeless.' " 
"Former Mayor Rocky Anderson vows to open [an approved, sanctioned homeless camp] or more camps with toilets, showers, laundry facilities, food and caseworkers in an attempt to quell street camping."
"What utterly inhumane, wasteful, cruel practices. And this is coming straight from Mayor Mendenhall. The buck not only stops with her: we know that this policy is driven by her. And yet she'll go out in the most hypocritical fashion and talk about how much she loves the homeless." - Rocky Anderson, interview on Utah Stories podcast
" 'In short, there’s an enormous, deadly Catch-22 crack in the system through which mentally ill people freezing to death are falling,' . . . 'It is the responsibility of our elected officials and employees whose jobs entail providing mental health services to mentally ill homeless people to provide a solution to this dilemma,' Anderson wrote."
". . . I'm not looking to have people, especially if they're mentally ill or drug addicted , to face a lot of punishment or retribution, I'm looking for them to be brought into the system and get some help." - Rocky Anderson
"Hale was living out of a tent when a chance encounter with former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson over the summer sparked a shift in her living conditions. Anderson, who is seeking to recapture his seat at City Hall and is campaigning heavily on homelessness issues, introduced Hale to officials from The Point, a low-income housing development at 2333 W. North Temple for seniors and veterans run by Switchpoint, a nonprofit homelessness services organization. Last month, Hale moved into her new place, paying $450 a month with utilities included. It’s a price modest enough to be covered by the Social Security she started collecting last spring when she turned 65."
"Former Mayor Rocky Anderson is calling for a sanctioned campground . . . 'If [the unsheltered homeless] preferred to be in tents then you could get that sanctioned campground, but I also think there are plenty of warehouses, there are plenty of places that we could find, like the courtyard in San Antonio, you could put pads down on the floor. They could have lockers where you can store your property. But right now, what happens: you pitch your tent, you are trying to find a place where you can exist, you have a job, then you get a warning that they are going to raid, they are going to take
your property if you are not there to get your stuff out of there so you can’t go to work.' " - Rocky Anderson |
"[W]e need to commit to get rid of all the encampments spread throughout the community, and, with that, some of the criminal element. But, you don’t do that unless you’ve got alternatives. That’s why we’ve got the situation we have now, those alternatives haven’t been provided. When the road home shelter was closed, it was a disaster in the making. . . [The "resource centers" are] all full, and they ended up with almost four hundred fewer beds among these resource centers that cost so many millions of dollars to build and to operate than were available with 1,100 beds at the Road Home shelters." - Rocky Anderson, City Cast Salt Lake podcast
"Mayor Rocky Anderson addressed the AMSA in a meeting held Thursday afternoon outside the Park Building. 'In Utah about 4,000 people are homeless every night,' Anderson said. 'What you are doing is absolutely inspirational. It’s great to see more and more young people that are stepping up on social issues.' "
" 'This is going to be remembered in history as a real turning point for how we work with those who are chronically homeless,' said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. Eighty of Sunrise's 100 apartments have been leased, with the others expected to be filled in May. Residents will begin moving in April 5."
" 'The next person who dies of exposure on the streets of Salt Lake City will be a result of there being no plan, no implementation and no overflow shelter to provide for the safety of the people who are homeless in our city,' Anderson said."
"'We cannot have one more homeless person dying on the streets of Salt Lake City,' Anderson said as he led a protest outside of current Mayor Jackie Biskupski’s office Friday afternoon. 'We have no plan in Salt Lake City for when the shelters are at capacity and people are out in the cold.' "
After a 15-year hiatus, Rocky Anderson said he is running for mayor of Salt Lake City for a third time in November mainly running because of the homeless crisis.
‘We had people on our streets dying of the freezing cold, getting frostbite and having their fingers and their toes amputated — and that is an absolute crisis, and it was ignored,’ Anderson said. . . . ‘And in the process, confiscating their survival gear like tents, sleeping bags, and clothing,’ he said. ‘That is what got me going. Our city — everybody has been negatively impacted: our residents, businesses and members of the homeless community.’ |
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In July, state Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake City, authored an email paid for and distributed by Erin Mendenhall's mayoral reelection campaign. "The constructive tone Erin has set has finally created a real partnership in confronting the statewide homelessness crisis," he said.
The idea of "partnership" between the incumbent Salt Lake City mayor and state legislators obscures the statistics of Utah's 2023 Annual Data Report on Homelessness. The Deseret News reported that it "showed a 96% increase in people experiencing chronic homelessness since 2019 and a 10% jump, year over year, to 8,637 people experiencing homelessness for the first time."
Square these numbers with a recent re-election ad by Mendenhall, boasting that Salt Lake City's two homeless centers can increase capacity by 50 beds apiece, plus another 200 beds during "Code Blue" events when temperatures are 15 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. The majority of overflow beds aren't even in Salt Lake City, but other places throughout the county.
Paucities. Out-of-city solutions. Arbitrariness.
Anything below 32 degrees is freezing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that extreme cold varies, meaning we can experience it at temperatures above freezing. Fifteen degrees—well below freezing—is an odd number that appears to mean something.
I invite Mayor Mendenhall or state homeless coordinator Wayne Niederhauser to spend a couple nights outside this winter and report back to the public. What is the difference between 15 and 17 degrees? Or between 17 and 20?
Last winter, unhoused SLC residents died at unprecedented rates. Richard Markosian of Utah Stories reported that the city's count is likely low, and The Salt Lake Tribune revealed that at least a dozen people had died due to exposure. Winter descends, and Mendenhall touts a long-term strategy. But, as reported by the Deseret News, she now lacks funding.
A strategy without funding? At best, this is wishful thinking. And at worst? Another winter with our incumbent as mayor.
Instead of ideating and enacting solutions, Mendenhall is on record saying that sanctioned encampments aren't the city's responsibility. Mendenhall ultimately flip-flopped on the topic, changing her campaign message. "[M]y administration and staff ... are working daily ... on a safe, structured sanctioned campground," she now claims, while continuing to condone raids on the houseless.
Of the abatements, Mendenhall said in June: "We participate in those because it's inhumane for a city to allow [unhoused residents to live in] public spaces that were never fit for human habitation." This is a classic example of punishing the victim.
Sen. Blouin claims that Mendenhall's work has "resulted in direct investment in reducing the impacts of homelessness." Huh? I've deliberated over what his words, when cobbled together, mean. A deconstruction of the sentence reveals it describes nothing.
Moreover, our streets showcase the opposite of Blouin's sloganeering.
People are forced from one unlawful camp to the next because there's nowhere to go. These folks require shelter, hospitalization and/or rehabilitation. Instead of meaningful reform, Mendenhall humanizes the cyclical abuse of government-sanctioned abatements—a mean-spirited act that includes stealing from the poorest among us.
In a KSL NewsRadio report, Rocky Anderson—former two-term mayor and candidate for reelection this November—talked about the previous winter: "We had people on our streets dying of the freezing cold, getting frostbite and having their fingers and their toes amputated," he said. "That is an absolute crisis, and it was ignored."
What do meaningful political partnerships really look like? They look like Anderson's relationship with Latter-day Saints and non-LDS communities, his positive associations with Republicans and his forthright engagement with the media, Capitol Hill and the public.
Anderson is transparent. He's empathetic. This past winter, he personally drove a frostbitten victim to the emergency room. Between The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, there exist many articles that report on his commitment to bipartisanship.
Following the 2002 Winter Olympics, Anderson endorsed now-Utah Sen. Mitt Romney for Massachusetts governor, and Romney in turn endorsed Anderson's reelection campaign. As reported by the Deseret News, the Alliance for Unity was a "brainchild of two political opposites, industrialist Jon Huntsman Sr. and Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson." The program brought together civic, business and religious leaders of all faiths and political backgrounds to bridge divides in the community.
A 2003 Deseret News article about the Joseph Smith Memorial Building's 10th anniversary quotes Gordon B. Hinkley—the late president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—praising then-Mayor Anderson's leadership. Anderson also received the 2019 Leonard Weinglass in Defense of Civil Liberties Award from the American Association for Justice.
Humane results through dialogue, constructive collaboration, partnerships unrestricted by political or religious affiliation as well as humor, sensitivity, transparency and seriousness. These rank among the man's documented strengths as a public servant.
Our collective humanity deserves solutions for our city's houseless—not senatorial marketing puffery in "Paid for by Mendenhall" advertisements. We need representation that understands the difference between brinkmanship and positive change.
I'm disenchanted with Sen. Nate Blouin and the other supporters of Mayor Erin Mendenhall, not because they don't see what I see—but because what they describe isn't what I see.
Calvin Jolley lives in Salt Lake's Central City neighborhood. His credits include The American Book Review, MAYDAY Magazine by New American Press, Context South, 15 Bytes, Otis Nebula, and The Salt Lake Tribune. He is an issue voter who has no formal political affiliation with Rocky Anderson's campaign for mayor.
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