Jan. 2023 | Vol. 17 Iss. 01
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A PROFILE IN UNHOUSED COURAGE By Mimi Darley Dutton | m.dutton@mycityjournals.com
H
e’s polite, articulate and quick with a slew of clean jokes. He has a commercial driver’s license and currently works in security. He’s a “Star Trek” fan, a dad, and a dog and cat owner. His name is Lawrence Horman, and he’s homeless (depending on your perspective). “I never intended to be a spokesperson or a poster boy for the homeless, but somebody has to speak up and advocate...I’ve been put in a unique position that allows me to do what most homeless can’t do for themselves,” he said. Horman has been traveling to city council meetings throughout Salt Lake County to give insight into the plight of people in his predicament and to offer ideas for potential solutions. “Things have changed for the homeless, some for the better, some for the worse. I give a perspective of lived experience,” he said. Horman said people in the homeless community and their advocates prefer the term unhoused, but he’s OK using the term homeless since it’s most familiar. He was there in 2017 when a public meeting was held about Draper being a potential homeless shelter location. He was driving home from work that evening and heard a radio report that the meeting was happening at Draper Park Middle School. “I found out it was still going on so I went there, and I stood up to speak up for the homeless,” he said. It was intended to be an open house with then Salt Lake County Continued page 9
Advocates for the homeless argue that housing should be a right rather than a privilege. Lawrence Horman has been sharing his lived experience as an unhoused person in hopes of being part of the solution. “Those who are in the situation might have something to contribute to better steer solutions,” he told Draper’s city council. (Courtesy Lawrence Horman)
Local Postal Customer ECRWSS
page 6
Unified sports growth
Scan Here: Interactive online edition with more photos.
page 14
Draper 2022
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Basketball season gathering speed
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