Salt Lake City Police Department, Homeless Outreach Service Team (HOST) Program Overview

NOTE: This is a free resource, NOT an eLearning course. There is no pretest or posttest, and you will not receive a certificate of completion for reviewing this resource.

Resource Overview: Salt Lake City Police Department, Homeless Outreach Service Team (HOST) Program Overview, an interactive publication, provides a summary of the three primary components of the HOST program--donations to homeless service providers, the homeless support group, and collaborative street outreach. Designed with the purpose of sharing program information and materials to help create a better model to end homelessness across the nation, this publication serves as a valuable resource for anyone interested in homeless outreach efforts.

The Homeless Outreach Service Team (HOST) program was originally developed to bring Salt Lake City (Utah) police officers and community outreach workers together to identify homeless individuals who panhandle or engage in other types of public nuisance activities in the city and connect them to community resources. The main objectives were to encourage police to make referrals to services rather than issue citations and to decrease the prevalence of panhandling by encouraging the public to give money to service providers rather than directly to panhandlers.

In 2012, the Salt Lake City Police Department expanded the program to include a public awareness campaign, coordinate strategic planning efforts, and recruit and train formerly homeless individuals as volunteers to assist with outreach efforts. 

Target Audience: The intended audience for this interactive publication is anyone interested in homeless outreach efforts

Original Publication: October 5, 2016

Cooperative Partners: This interactive report is based on the 2016 written publication of the same name, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). This online version was developed by the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation (VCPI) and was supported by cooperative agreement number 2018-CK-WXK-001 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).