Salt Lake City Man Sets Camp For The Homeless In His Own Yard [Video]

• Darin Mann is known to give food to the homeless.
• Now, he has a homeless encampment in his front yard that accommodates 5 to 15.
• Though some neighbors have complained to city officials, there are others who believe in Darin’s advocacy.

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A man in Salt Lake City is trying to help the homeless by setting up a camp in his front yard. He has already donated hundreds of pounds of vegetables from the village co-op garden that he organized. He says his next step is to give the homeless a place to stay.

Darin Mann started locating and screening homeless people and then invited them to live on his property. 

His front yard is now filled with the homeless’ tents.  He says the encampment is a place where the homeless can feel secure enough to keep their belongings.  It also gives them a sense of security that thieves cannot get to their stuff.  Here, they are not always looking out for the police to relocate them.

Mann has also allotted a private restroom for the tent dwellers to use.

He has one rule that the guests should strictly adhere to: no drugs or violence will be tolerated.

Mann said: “One strike policy and you’re out! And that we are here to promote a positive image of, you know…unsheltered folks are people just like you and me so everybody here is really motivated to better themselves and be a part of this wonderful community that we live in.”

The current capacity of the “camp” is between 5 and 15 people.

The presence of the front yard camp has been getting mixed reactions from Mann’s neighbors.  Some have been cooperative while others are not too happy about the situation.

Salt Lake City officials have already received a few complaints.  The officials ordered Mann to clean up his property for violating a code. They also granted him a two-week extension.

In the long run, the Salt Lake County Health Department can decide if it will shut Mann’s encampment down or not. But so far, not yet.

Source: Fox 13