A Senate committee voted unanimously to forward HCR 6, a concurrent resolution urging changes to federal homelessness regulations, to the Senate floor.

Representative Clancy, the resolution's sponsor, said the measure "asks the federal government to give Utah more flexibility when it comes to spending our federal homeless dollars. We ask for a couple of specific things in this small resolution. The most important is granting us a waiver for what's called housing first." Clancy described the state-level concern that current HUD rules can disqualify programs that require participation in drug treatment or mental-health programming from federal funding, and said the change would allow "locally tailored solutions" for people experiencing severe addiction or co-occurring mental-health conditions. Clancy also said U.S. Rep. Blake Moore had indicated support and would deliver a copy of the resolution to the HUD secretary if the resolution advanced.

Nick Kripis of the Disability Law Center testified in support of seeking flexibility but expressed concerns about block grants. "While block granting HUD dollars would certainly give us flexibility, our experience does indicate that, the money is unlikely to keep up with the need and population growth," Kripis told the committee, warning that block grants in other programs have sometimes led to funds being diverted away from core services. Kripis also said Utah has not fully funded evidence-based permanent housing models and urged additional investment.

Committee discussion included questions about oversight and the risk that greater flexibility could lead to reduced funding for homelessness services. Representative Clancy responded that implementation and follow-through would be the state's responsibility and argued current federal rules were failing some of the state's most vulnerable residents. The committee passed the resolution with a favorable recommendation and the motion carried unanimously.