January 28, 2025
Nate Crippes / Public Affairs Supervising Attorney
ncrippes@disabilitylawcenter.org
Andrew Riggle / Public Policy Advocate
ariggle@disabilitylawcenter.org
(801) 363-1347 / (800) 662-9080
disabilitylawcenter.org
Good afternoon committee members. I’m Andrew Riggle, the Disability Law Center’s public policy advocate.
The DLC appreciates Rep. Clancy’s willingness to consider our suggestions. We’re also grateful for his fearlessness in taking on important issues, like homelessness.
We have a few concerns about HCR 6. While block granting HUD dollars would certainly give Utah more flexibility, experience indicates the money is unlikely to keep up with need or population growth. Additionally, TANF has been block granted for several decades. In that time, we’ve seen the funds increasingly diverted to programs only tangentially related to helping kids and families, while the portion dedicated to directly helping them seems to steadily decline.
Before giving up on the housing first philosophy, we need substantially more truly affordable housing. Sadly, funding for it appears to be largely absent from the governor’s budget recommendations. Likewise, we have yet to hear much about it in the conversation around appropriation requests.
Similarly, we agree permanent supported housing may not work for everyone. However, we don’t really know for whom, and how well, it can work because Utah hasn’t fully embraced or funded the evidence-based model.
Finally, for the last five years, the DLC has focused on how to help prevent the next mental health crisis. We believe the answer is largely intensive, community-based, wraparound services. Unfortunately, continuing to emphasize costly residential and facility-based care means fewer resources available for these efficient and effective alternatives.
Thank you for your time and considering our perspective.