Housing SLC FAQs
What is a housing plan?
A housing plan is sets goals and priorities to help make living in Salt Lake City safer, more affordable, and more comfortable for everyone. Too many people spend too much of their income on housing, and without a plan, nothing will change. A housing plan will guide City efforts on policies, programs, and funding opportunities to make it easier and more affordable to live.
What did the last SLC Housing Plan accomplish? How does it relate to this new Housing Plan?
Growing SLC accomplished or made significant progress toward accomplishing 27 of 27 goals. You can check out a progress update from December 2021 here. While Growing SLC saw success, the dramatic increases in housing costs were unforeseen, taking everyone by surprise. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic had dramatic impacts on the cost to build housing.
Why do we need a housing plan?
Everyone needs housing. And everyone needs safe, comfortable, and adequate housing that they can afford. If we don’t have a housing plan, we are saying that we trust that the market will solve the problem for us. We have seen enough to know that the market will not solve the housing crisis. Rents and for-sale housing costs have increased rapidly and much faster than wages. Putting together a plan of action to intervene and help make housing more affordable for everyone, but especially individuals and families with low incomes, is not only the right thing to do, but it is essential for a functioning society.
What does the CRA do and how do they fit into the housing plan?
The CRA’s mission is “Strengthening neighborhoods and business districts to improve livability, create economic opportunity, and foster authentic, equitable communities.” They develop and manage project areas that gather funding that can help areas grow. Through these project areas, they collect funding that is dedicated to creating affordable housing. The CRA’s Board of Director’s has established the need for deeply affordable (30% AMI) housing and the need for family housing as priorities for the CRA. You can find out more here.
How does zoning impact affordable housing?
Zoning determines what can be built where. Some areas of the city are zoned for single family homes, others are zoned for industrial uses. Still others allow a mix of uses. Because zoning sets the rules for what can go where, it matters a lot to housing. In a built-out city like Salt Lake City, changing zoning to allow for more density – and more housing – in more places helps us build more housing, which can help lower the costs of housing. There are also zoning tools that also allow the City to encourage affordable housing in different areas. Zoning changes are passed by the City Council.
Where can I find affordable housing?
You can visit the Utah Affordable Housing Database to find affordable housing throughout the state. You can also visit the Tenant Resource Center for more resources. For immediate assistance, you can call the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City at 801-487-2161.
Why is housing so expensive?
There are a number of reasons why housing is so expensive.
• After the Great Recession, housing development slowed down a lot. Population growth, however, did not slow. This created a mismatch between supply and demand. There are far more people needing a place to live than there are places to live. A report by the Kem C. Gardner Policy institute estimates that Utah is facing a shortage of over 44,000 housing units. This means that there is just not enough housing for people.
• Because there are not enough units, landlords can continue to raise rents, knowing that people will pay because people need places to live.
• The State of Utah does not allow cities to implement rent control policies. This means that the City can’t put a cap on how much rent can be increased each year.
• Wages have also stagnated. Since the 1970s, wages have stayed pretty much the same when adjusted for inflation. So even though the rents have increased a lot, wages have not kept pace. The minimum wage hasn’t been increased since 2009.
• In the 1970s, the Federal government stopped building public housing projects and shifted to more market-based solutions to housing people. This means that housing costs are up to landlords and developers. Re-investing in publicly owned housing or creating opportunities for community-owned housing can help keep rents more affordable.
Why is there so much new housing development going up, but new affordable housing is still limited?
• Building housing is expensive and developers and investors need to not only pay off loans but also have returns on investment. To do that, they need to have rents that cover their costs and bring in the return on investment. To build affordable housing this way, public dollars need to be invested to subsidize the units so that the lower rents can allow for loans to be repaid and returns on investment to be met. The more affordable the rent, the more subsidy has to be committed to make it work financially.
• The cost to build housing has increased over the past two years as supply chains have made materials more expensive and as there is a shortage of construction labor. These are hard barriers to overcome for a private developer. It is easier, and a safer investment, to build for market rate renters, which means that affordable housing may not be built at the rate it is needed.
• The market will never build deeply affordable housing (affordable to people making 30% of the area median income). Housing is too expensive to build and deeply affordable rents too low that a project will not make economic sense. Governments and non-profit developers need to fill this market gap.
What tools can the City use to make housing more affordable?
There are multiple ways that the City can make housing more affordable.
• Subsidizing (paying for) affordable units in private developments
• Waiving fees for developers
• Putting housing units into a Community Land Trust
• Zoning changes that allow for increased density and pairing these with affordability requirements
• Incentives for developers building affordable housing
• Publicly developing and owning housing (this tool is not currently available, but could be an option moving forward)
What are my rights as a renter?
As a renter, you have
• The right to fair housing (Federal Fair Housing Act & State Fair Housing Act)
• The right to habitable living conditions (Utah Fit Premises Act) and Salt Lake Fit Premises Ordinance
• The right to Peaceful Enjoyment (Utah Fit Premises Act)
Read the Utah Housing Coalition’s Tenant Toolkit (Español | عربي | Tiếng Việt)
How does this plan relate/connect to Thriving in Place (TIP) and gentrification?
Thriving in Place is an anti-displacement plan, which is a crucial part of any complete housing plan. Thriving in Place complements Housing SLC and many of the action items from Thriving in Place are in Housing SLC. Housing SLC includes more than anti-displacement strategies, creating a holistic housing plan for the city.
What does the City have in our control? And are there limits on what the City can do?
State law prohibits the City from enacting rent control policies, increasing the minimum wage, changing eviction policies (the timelines, costs, and the right to counsel, for instance), and certain land use policies like inclusionary zoning (requiring that all new developments either include affordable housing or pay into a fund for the creation of affordable housing).
While we can’t do these things, there are ways that we can achieve similar goals:
• Rent control: City or community ownership of more units, deed-restricting more units (requiring income-eligibility requirements)
• Increasing minimum wage: invest in job programs (in jobs that pay above a living wage); require all City contractors to pay their employees/subcontractors a living wage; lower the costs of other essentials (food, health and dental care, childcare, transportation, etc.)
• Evictions: Fund rental assistance programs, legal funds to ensure that anyone facing eviction has counsel, and creating a one-stop-shop for housing programs