Salt Lake Council OKs overflow shelter

The Salt Lake City Council took emergency action Tuesday night to make sure that as many as 90 homeless men have a place to sleep this winter.

For about a decade, The Road Home shelter,210 S. Rio Grande St., has partnered with neighboring St. Vincent de Paul Center to provide overflow shelter for homeless men.

City planning officials recently learned that the conditional-use permit that would allow St. Vincent to provide the space didn't exist — making the action illegal.

Because the process for obtaining the proper permissions would take four to six months, the City Council unanimously approved temporary zoning regulations that will allow the overflow sheltering to continue through this winter.

In addition to the temporary action, city leaders committed to addressing problems cited by area business owners and others, such as the concentration of homeless shelters in one area and the lack of synchronization of hours among them that leaves the homeless population with nowhere to go at certain times of the day.