Salt Lake County homeless plan calls for 1,000 housing units and drug enforcement push [Video]

Salt Lake County wants to build 1,000 new housing units over the next five years and make major investments in drug enforcement officers as Utah sharpens its focus on fighting homelessness.

The steps, outlined in Mayor Jenny Wilson’s newly released plan to tackle homelessness and reform the criminal justice system, come as state and local leaders take a more aggressive posture toward illegal homeless camps.

The 1,000 new housing units would be made up of 300 new group home housing units and 700 new permanent supportive housing units.

“We have committed governmental leaders not just here at Salt Lake County, but [also in] our cities [and] the state,” Wilson said Friday afternoon. “And what we really need to do is stop working in isolation. We need to be more deliberately coordinated.”

In addition to the new housing and hiring of 10 additional Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force officers, Wilson’s plan calls for training law enforcement to use a new receiving …