Utah launches round-up program to fund homeless services

During the final days of the 2024 Utah Legislature, a new provision into the omnibus alcohol bill for the year came together last minute. 

The bill, HB548, established a new program at state liquor stores to ask customers whether they’d like to round up their purchases to donate to a state fund that supports homeless service programs across Utah. 

Starting Nov. 19, 2024, the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services officially launched that program in liquor and wine stores across the state. 

Now, at checkout, liquor store cashiers will ask customers if they would like to round up their purchase to the nearest dollar. If they agree, their donation will go directly to the Pamela Atkinson Homeless Account, a fund named after a prominent homeless advocate. The state uses the fund to direct donations to a wide variety of homeless programs, according to state officials, including: 

• Emergency services like temporary shelters, meal services, day centers and outreach programs. 
• Supportive services, including case management to help people move into stable housing. 
• Housing services, including rapid rehousing programs, transitional housing, rental assistance, case management and security. 
• Domestic violence service providers. 

“This program offers Utahns a simple way to make a meaningful impact,” said Senate Budget Chair Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, in a statement. “By rounding up, we can provide essential resources to those who need them most and make significant strides toward addressing homelessness in our state.” 

Though the round-up program will be asking Utah customers to donate small amounts – less than a dollar – each transaction can add up. Last year, Utah saw more than $579 million in alcohol sales, according to the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services’ 2023 annual report. 

State officials estimate it will bring in roughly $2.5 million a year to the Pamela Atkinson fund. 

To spread the word about the new program, officials from the Utah Office of Homeless Services and the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services held a media event at one of the state’s liquor and wine stores in Salt Lake City. 

State officials said they were eager to launch the program after the Pamela Atkinson fund’s annual donations has been “pretty stagnant” in recent years. 

Utah’s growing homeless system is also seeing more projects come to fruition, including a new 50-bed microshelter community on state-owned land under freeway overpasses in Salt Lake City. State officials are also looking at possibly doing more for youth and family homelessness, as well as generally expanding the state homeless system’s capacity. 

Through the round-up program, Utahns can contribute to services that have faced increased pressures as Utah’s homelessness population has grown amid diminished housing affordability, increasing cost of living, and other issues including increased needs for mental health and substance abuse treatment.

In recent years, Utah’s emergency homeless shelters have been operating at essentially mass capacity, people suffering from mental illness have been living in shelters and jails, and “the deficit for deeply affordable housing is at 77,000 units,” according to a January report issued by the Utah Office of Homeless Services. 

Meanwhile, state leaders have also dramatically increased the amount of state and federal funds funneled toward homeless services over the past three years as state leaders have taken on a more active role, agreeing that homelessness is a statewide problem, and not just a Salt Lake City problem. 

In 2022, Utah appropriated about $35 million in state and federal funds on homeless services, according to the state’s budget website. That amount grew to $70 million in 2023, then to over $167.7 million in 2024 – including $30 million in one-time COVID-19 relief funding, plus about $37.3 million in other federal funds. For fiscal year 2025, state leaders appropriated about $153.7 million in state and federal funds. 

Ongoing revenue resources are harder to come by than one-time money during the legislature’s budgeting process, so even though it’s a comparatively small amount to the state’s larger homeless services budget, the round-up program will still help.