SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah has asked President Donald Trump's administration to approve a limited Medicaid plan to help the homeless and those in need of mental health and drug addiction treatment.

It's part of a state strategy to curb violence and drug trafficking in a Salt Lake City neighborhood near an overcrowded homeless shelter.

Utah officials decided not to take the federal government's offer to help open the state's Medicaid program up to insure more of the working poor. Utah instead passed a pared-down plan insuring homeless people making less than about $600 a year or people who need mental health or substance abuse treatment, particularly those in the criminal justice system.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/2wTycmz) Utah health officials submitted the plan to the U.S. government Tuesday and hope to begin covering people Jan. 1.

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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com