Utah committee adopts substitute for HB 3 29 to codify shelter safety, data and funding rules

House Bill 3 29, a broad rewrite of state policy for homeless services, advanced from committee after extended testimony and public comment. Representative Tyler Clancy, the bill sponsor, told the committee the bill “creates drug free homeless services” and aims to translate existing best practices into state law.

The bill’s sponsor said the measure clarifies intake and information-sharing rules for providers, so that taxpayers’ funds are not a “safe harbor for criminals,” and empowers elected local officials to participate more directly in winter-response and governance decisions. "We wanna make sure that elected officials feel like they are empowered in these decision making efforts," Clancy said.

Clancy described several main components in the first substitute: safety and screening protocols for shelters (including bag checks and metal-detector-style searches as used by some providers), requirements for client agreements that allow information-sharing with law enforcement in certain circumstances, expanded board appointment authorities to include public-safety perspectives and people with lived experience, and a limited use of a restricted account in the Office of Homeless Services to support family reunification travel for clients with…