Live: State leaders discuss progress of homeless shelters construction – Salt Lake Tribune

House Speaker Greg Hughes said that the downtown Road Home shelter, which houses up to 1,100 people nightly, will have a "hard close date" of June 30, 2019.

Senate President Wayne Niederhauser and Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox also spoke, reiterating that homelessness is a statewide problem.

The news was met with elation by Chris Sveiven, who lives less than 100 feet from the proposed shelter on Simpson Avenue, and has vocally opposed the site.

"It was like taking the soul of our little neighborhood," he said of the proposed shelter.

The city's resource center would have replaced Lit'l Scholars, a day care at 653 E. Simpson Ave, where Sveiven's 19-month-old son, Weston, is on the waiting list. The proximity to the preschool is part of why Sveiven picked and renovated his red-brick house in Sugar House.

He banded with neighbors to protest the site and credits that for the change in heart in the Simpson property being pulled from the list.

"If we wouldn't have gone and made as much noise as we did, there's no way they would have shifted back to two sites," he said. "To say I'm relieved is an understatement."

The Tribune will update this story.

Reporter Courtney Tanner contributed to this report.

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Live: State leaders discuss progress of homeless shelters construction - Salt Lake Tribune