“Less than five minutes’ drive from downtown Salt Lake City sits the quiet neighborhood of Fairpark. The area hosts an annual state fair, a regional campus of Utah State University and modest homes with small yards.
On one of those yards sits a random group of tents where people experiencing homelessness have set up camp. They are there at the invitation of homeowner Darin Mann. He lets the people camp on his tidy third of an acre, use a bathroom in his house and volunteer at a community garden Mann runs at a nearby public park.
Tents in the front yard
‘The goal is to de-stigmatize how people view homelessness,’ Mann explains. ‘Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and helped when they need it.’
The local activist opened up his impromptu tent area, dubbed ‘Village Camp,’ in mid-January. Some 15 people live there right now. Mann tells CNN that the residents came from other camps in Salt Lake City that were shut down.
‘We wanted to show that to solve this problem we have to address it as a community and not be afraid of it.’
Mann points out how Village Camp’s residents help pull their weight in the community, especially at the urban garden he maintains.
‘They are helping me clean the garden and get it ready for the season. They keep the camp clean and are helping to be a positive example of working with unsheltered people'”
View the whole story here: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/06/us/homeless-utah-front-yard-trnd/index.html