Poverty summit highlights need for housing to move families out of homelessness and problems with Rocky Mountain Power's proposed rate increase

On Saturday, August 24, 2024, a bit over 80 people gathered at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark for Crossroads Urban Center's annual Poverty Summit. We are so grateful for the wonderful people at the Cathedral who allowed us to use their space for this event and all of the caring people who showed up.

Highlights from the Summit include

• Presentations from the two major party candidates for Salt Lake County Mayor about how they would address homelessness if they are elected or reelected in November.  We are grateful both the incumbent, Mayor Jenny Wilson (Democrat), and her challenger, Erin Rider (Republican) took time to meet with us and share their vision for addressing this major issue in Salt Lake County.
• Presentations from the two major party campaigns for Governor on how they will address homelessness and housing affordability if they are elected or reelected.  We are grateful that Representative Brian King (Democratic candidate for Governor) and Rebekah Cummings (Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor) were both able to come and share their perspectives and ideas with us.  We were also grateful that Mike Mower was willing to come and share insights into the character of his friend, Governor Spencer Cox, and a few highlights of Governor Cox's many efforts to address homelessness and housing affordability,
• A panel discussion on why our state needs more permanent supportive housing for families with children and how we can help spur the production of more of that type of housing.  We are grateful to the panelists who helped explain why families headed by parents with disabilities can need more support than a homeless shelter can provide and how the absence of housing to meet the needs of these families can lead to family shelters becoming filled with people who have no place to go.  Thank you ​Dan Nackerman, from the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City,  David Damschen of the Utah Housing Corp.,  Julie Patterson form Powerful Moms Who Care, Moe Hickey, fromVoices for Utah Children abd  Michelle Flynn from The Road Home for making this discussion so informative.
• A panel discussion on the topic, "The rent is too high and Rocky Mountain Power wants to make things worse" featuring Maria Montes from Comunidades Unidas, Joe Hirabayashi of AARP Utah and Bill Tibbitts from Crossroads Urban Center.
• The presentation of the Hellraiser Award to the Nomad Alliance to recognize their work to involve unsheltered homeless people directly in state and local discussions about homelessness.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this event so successful!  Photos from the summit are below.  If you have additional from the summit to share please let us know.