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1/26/2024 - FOLLOW-UP ON THE HAVEN; URL CHANGE TO CITY WEBSITE; SHOUTOUT FROM MAYOR WILSON; etc. View this email in your browser A follow-up meeting to address the Haven/Switchpoint housing on 3300 S has been scheduled for this coming Wednesday, January 31, at 6 pm on the 6th floor of City Hall (1330 E Chambers Ave). Announcements Millcreek's website URL is changing from Millcreek.us to MillcreekUT.gov to comply with state law. See article below Public Meetings No public meetings this coming week. NEWS A MESSAGE REGARDING THE PROPOSED NEW USE OF THE HAVEN ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY From Mayor Jeff Silvestrini Recently, Switchpoint Community Resource Center applied to the City for approval to operate a Residential Facility for Persons with a Disability. Switchpoint is in the process of purchasing the privately-owned property and building located at ---PAGE BREAK--- 1871 E 3300 S that was until very recently the Haven assisted living facility. Switchpoint's application is proposing to provide permanent housing for 43 men who, while they have a history of mental illness and homelessness, are on the path toward stability before they are accepted into Switchpoint's program. Earlier this week, we hosted a community meeting at the facility to provide Switchpoint an opportunity to explain their program to the neighborhood and to take questions from residents. Switchpoint’s proposal has generated significant public interest, and we wish to clarify some of the misconceptions about the facility that we are hearing through social media and through emails and phone calls to city staff. Millcreek will be hosting another public meeting on this coming Wednesday, January 31, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. on the 6th floor of Millcreek City Hall. The purpose of the meeting is to explain why this facility must be permitted under state and federal law, to explain how the City, UPD and the provider intend to mitigate impacts, and to address questions. Switchpoint will be operating a Residential Support Program, NOT a homeless shelter. A number of concerned residents are describing the facility as a homeless shelter. A homeless shelter is designed to provide free overnight sleeping accommodations for the homeless, typically on a walk-in basis. Switchpoint is proposing to operate what they call a “supportive housing facility” which will be licensed as a Residential Support Program by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. Residents will have to be referred to this program by a clinical team, and will be expected to sign a long-term lease and pay a portion of their income as rent, with the rest of the cost being supported by Medicaid or other insurance. There will be on-site and off-site security, and a code of conduct. As the provider, Switchpoint will be providing 24/7 on-site security in the form of professional staff who are trained in de-escalation and trauma informed care in a clinical setting. At least one member of staff will be uniformed security, and will monitor the front doors of the facility at all times. ---PAGE BREAK--- In addition, Switchpoint, the City and the Unified Police Department will meet at least to discuss what is working, and what is not working, at the facility. This proactive relationship between UPD, the City, and staff is a proven model we used for the Temporary Overflow Shelter last year, that helped reduce adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood. Active drug use and violent behavior is grounds for eviction from the program. Visitors will be screened for past criminal activity and visits are prohibited after 10 pm. Active drug use and violent behavior are grounds for eviction from the program. Convicted sex offenders and violent criminals are not eligible for the Residential Support Program. Switchpoint will perform screening and background checks of every potential resident. Individuals with sex offense convictions, murder or manslaughter convictions, violent criminal charges within the last seven years, or distribution or theft charges within the last three years will not be admitted into the Residential Support Program. Residents will receive significant support and treatment. To participate in the Residential Support Program, residents must be accepted into and participate with an “ACT Team.” An ACT Team is comprised of qualified medical, and social work professionals who work with these individuals based upon a prescribed ratio of residents per team. They ensure these individuals are receiving and maintaining treatment regimens, including medication, to stabilize them and address their mental health issues. The ACT Teams will be inside the facility every day, or nearly every day, to help residents on site. ACT teams operate in addition to the on-site staff. Residents may have the capability of going off-site for some aspects of their treatment, depending upon the individual and their need. Most of the residents will receive their treatment on-site from these outside professional team members. This is not unlike healthcare professionals who come on site to attend to residents of an assisted living facility for the elderly. It's just much more intense. In addition, the facility will provide programming to occupy residents during waking hours. Some of that may be field trips but it will be mostly on-site. For example, residents will be encouraged to assist with communal cooking, cleaning, etc. to the extent they are able. The Residential Support Program is not a behavioral health hospital. A Residential Support Program is not designed to provide acute mental health ---PAGE BREAK--- care. Clients will be on the path toward stability before they become residents of the facility. The Health and Human Services license for Residential Support Programs requires wraparound support services, above and beyond what, for example, a drug treatment program provides. The program will be subject to inspection multiple times per year by insurance providers, Salt Lake County, and the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure compliance.The status of Switchpoint’s other licenses is regularly monitored by the State. The information is available here. Residents can come and go as they please. The proposed residential facility is not a jail or a lockdown facility. Participation in this residential facility is voluntary, as it is in any other assisted living or skilled nursing facility. Because the residents are paying rent and, in some cases working, Switchpoint cannot legally prevent a resident from leaving at certain hours. However, Switchpoint is including a code of conduct in their lease agreement that stresses the importance of being a good neighbor and respecting the property rights and privacy of their neighbors. In addition, the facility will be monitored at all times with staff at the front door. The building is suited for the proposed use. This facility was legally constructed in 1999, and it has been subject to regular inspection by the Department of Health and the Fire Marshal ever since then. The building is well suited for a Residential Support Program, and received an inspection by city staff earlier this week. The facility complied with the standards for open space in effect at the time it was initially permitted as a residential facility. That use is not changing, and we cannot require as a condition of approval the addition of any “green space.” A Residential Facility for persons with a disability is permitted in the Multifamily Residential Zone. The property has been zoned Multifamily Residential for many years, and nursing homes, senior centers, and residential facilities for persons with a disability are permitted uses in the zone. This means that the City has no legal basis to deny a permit. In fact, Millcreek’s code establishes assisted living facilities as a subcategory of residential facilities for persons with a disability, as any facility in this category requires a permit from the Department of Health and Human Services. Millcreek cannot legally deny a permit for a use that the Multifamily Residential Zone expressly allows. Millcreek (and its taxpayers) would face severe consequences under ---PAGE BREAK--- federal law if we were to deny a permit for a Residential Facility for Persons with a Disability. There have been a number of comments suggesting we should deny Switchpoint’s permit application or that this use is not suited in a neighborhood. However, federal law protects the rights of disabled Americans to live in residential neighborhoods, and this includes people who suffer from mental health or substance abuse disorders. They have as much a right to live in our neighborhoods as we do. Denial of a permit for a Residential Facility for Persons with a Disability is a violation of both the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 2016, the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a Joint Statement that clarified that denying, delaying, or adding unreasonable conditions to a permit based on stereotypical perceptions about a protected class of disabled people is a likely violation of the Fair Housing Act. The consequences of violating the act are dire: Millcreek would be subject to a civil rights action from the Department of Justice, the applicant or potential residents and it would imperil many grants and appropriations we have received from federal and state agencies, because in those grant agreements we commit to further fair housing and protect the rights of all who live in Millcreek. While we can impose limited conditions on a permit that are not unduly burdensome and are not discriminatory, we cannot deny a permit for a Residential Facility for Persons with a Disability. The Millcreek City Council wants to alleviate your concerns. We recognize that this proposed use is a concern for many Millcreek residents. While the scope of staff’s decision regarding this permit is greatly constrained by federal law, we want to ensure that anyone who wants to learn more about the proposed use has an opportunity to do so. The City Council will be conducting a special meeting on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 at 6:00 pm on the 6th Floor of Millcreek City Hall, 1330 East Chambers Avenue. At the meeting, staff will present in greater detail the legal framework around approving Residential Facilities for Persons with a Disability, staff and the applicant will have an opportunity to clarify any remaining questions attendees have, and we will take additional public comment. Due to the size of the expected crowd and the need to hold the meeting in the Grandview Ballroom, we regret that the meeting will not be broadcast live, however a recording will be available later on the city website: MillcreekUT.gov. ---PAGE BREAK--- MILLCREEK. Beginning on January 29th, the Millcreek website URL will change from Millcreek.us to MillcreekUT.gov. This change is necessary to comply with legislation passed in the last session requiring all cities to move to a .gov URL for security reasons. The content of our website will stay the same, only the domain name is changing. We are working diligently to update all city forms and documents to reflect this change, but this will take time. Until all of our forms and documents are updated, we want to reassure our residents that all links that still contain Millcreek.us in the title will still work and will automatically forward you to MillcreekUT.gov. There should be no disruption to our website resources during this change. You will also see that the email addresses for city officials and staff have changed as well from @millcreek.us to @millcreekUT.gov. As with the website, the millcreek.us emails will continue to forward. ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- Millcreek Common Recognized by Salt Lake County Mayor in State of the County Address SALT LAKE COUNTY. Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson gave a nice shout out to the Millcreek team in her State of the County address on Wednesday. Check out the above clip beginning at minute marker 5:45. Thank you, Mayor Wilson. We appreciate our partners at Salt Lake County who are participating financially with us in the Community Reinvestment Area that made Millcreek Common a reality. Mayor Wilson's office and the Salt Lake County Council have been great friends to our new city. Take the SL-CLEAR Survey by February 11th. Last year, the greater Salt Lake and Tooele metro area received a $1M grant from the EPA to create a climate ---PAGE BREAK--- and pollution reduction plan. Local governments are working to identify high- impact, actionable ways to cut emissions and reduce pollution through the Greater Salt Lake Energy & Air Roadmap (SL-CLEAR) process. The Priority Climate Action Plan is due to the EPA by March 1. Your input is needed. The SL-CLEAR survey is open to all Salt Lake County and Tooele County residents and available in Spanish. It closes February 11, so don’t delay. Take the Survey HERE ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- Don't miss these upcoming Ice Skating Showcase performances at Millcreek Common! January 29th - US Figure Skaters, 6:30-7:00 pm January 31st - Oval Figure Skating Club, 6:30-7:00 pm These Showcases are FREE to the public. Come and watch some dazzling performances! February Art Exhibit at Millcreek Library Reception on February 2nd ---PAGE BREAK--- The Millcreek Arts Council and Salt Lake County Millcreek Library are starting the new year with a new exhibit at the Millcreek Library at 2266 Evergreen Ave. The artwork of Louise Earl will be displayed through the month of February. A reception will be held at the library from 6-6:45 PM on February 2nd. Please join us for light refreshments and musical accompaniment by Eric McKenna-Spreng. Louise Earl was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and spent her early years in Spokane Washington, where she recalls sketching trees while sitting on the curb near her home. The light and shade interested her even then. Today Louise's studio is in her home and she spends a large amount of her time there working on her paintings and improving her techniques Louise often paints three or four oils a week. She has done many portraits of children. She also enjoys still life florals and landscapes. In warmer months she does "en plein air" painting with a group of friends in local spots of interest. Instrumental Guitarist Eric McKenna-Spreng has forged his own distinctive sound from some of the world's great musical traditions. Weaving together threads of Spanish flamenco, traditional Celtic, Classical, and Americana, Eric's original music is a contemporary tapestry of historic impressions. He performs and in altered tunings on both steel string ---PAGE BREAK--- and nylon string guitars and has recorded two albums of original music, titled Dry Spell and Seven Sails. Visit his website at www.ravensfellmusic.com TUESDAY THURSDAY ---PAGE BREAK--- THURSDAY FRIDAY ---PAGE BREAK--- SAVE THE DATE Sign Up HERE ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- Register for Experiences HERE ---PAGE BREAK--- The Central Wasatch Commission has 3 vacancies on the Stakeholders Advisory Council, and as Millcreek is one of the Central Wasatch Commission's member jurisdictions, they are encouraging Millcreek residents to apply. The Stakeholders Council is a coalition of citizens who are actively working to make the Central Wasatch Mountains a better place for all, building consensus and problem-solving within four main areas: recreation, economy, environment, and transportation. Applications are open until February 9th at 5:00 PM. For details and to apply, please click the button below. Apply HERE ---PAGE BREAK--- Join the Millcreek team! Economic Development Assistant (FT) Senior Accountant (FT) Grants Manager (FT) Public Market Sales Associate (PT) Meetings with the Mayor Fridays from 2-4pm have been set aside for citizens to meet with Mayor Jeff Silvestrini. Call 801- 214-2700 to schedule a slot. VISIT us at Click here to subscribe to this weekly newsletter Copyright © 2024 Millcreek, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Click here to subscribe to this weekly newsletter Forward Share Tweet ---PAGE BREAK---