By McKenzie Romero | Editor
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for an emphasis on treatment and accountability in response to homelessness and addiction, and a shift away from Housing First policies.
Now, with an executive order of his own, Gov. Spencer Cox made Utah the first state to officially align with the effort and created a new council to steer the initiative, led by a former cop/lawmaker and two people who have experienced addiction as vice chairs.
In today’s Dispatch we lay out the push in Washington, D.C., and Utah to prioritize treatment in homelessness and addiction services, a watchdog’s report on the state agency overseeing a disability provider where three men died, and the Trump administration’s move allowing developers and loggers to kill endangered species.
“(Housing First) hasn’t proven effective in alleviating the suffering that we’re talking about today. Recovery has to be a part of that, and making sure that we have the resources in place to hold people accountable absolutely matters.” — Gov. Spencer Cox announcing the treatment-focused Recovery Utah Initiative and council in response to homelessness and addiction.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, joined by White House Senior Adviser for Addiction Recovery Kathryn Burgum, signs an executive order establishing the Recovery Utah Initiative during a news conference at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Sept. 21, 2026. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch)
By Katie McKellar
Gov. Spencer Cox’s Recovery Utah Initiative incorporates the “three pillars” driving his administration’s strategy to improve the state’s homeless system over the past year: accountability for “high utilizers” in the criminal justice system, emergency shelter and affordable housing, and mental and behavioral health infrastructure.
The governor’s executive order comes as the Trump administration has proposed funneling more money to localities that prioritize “treatment-first” policies, and a reversal from Housing First approaches that house people experiencing homelessness without requiring sobriety or participation in treatment programs as a condition to keep their housing.
The Capitol in Salt Lake City is pictured on Monday, May 6, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Annie Knox
Months after three Utahns with disabilities died in the care of a Utah company when investigators say an employee left them alone in vehicle for hours, its license has been revoked and a caretaker charged with murder. And now a watchdog organization is calling attention to its view of the state’s role in the deaths.
In its report, the Disability Law Center says the Utah Department of Health and Human Services should have known that Safe and Sound Services was a “dangerous provider.” The state agency had been told of problems like physical assaults and failure to provide medical care for injuries prior to the deaths, the report found.
Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states are federally protected as a threatened species. (Photo courtesy of Terry Tollefsbol/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
STATELINE
By Alex Brown
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik, the Trump administration’s top wildlife official, issued a directive last week that expands a recent rollback of endangered species protections much further than the feds had told the public.
Individuals and industries may kill endangered animals in the course of logging projects, developments and other activities, it said — so long as the activity’s purpose isn’t killing species. Wildlife advocates and experts said the nation’s bedrock wildlife conservation law would offer few safeguards under the new federal guidelines.
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