SALT LAKE CITY -- Religious leaders, local nonprofits and lawmakers are urging the Utah Legislature to restore funding for affordable housing to pre-pandemic levels or higher, in an effort to end homelessness among children.
Among families with kids, more than 15,000 Utahns have received homeless services since 2017, according to a report from the Crossroads Urban Center.
In the last 11 years, there are 220,000 more households in Utah, but the state has seen only about 185,000 more housing units, a 35,000-dwelling deficit.
Sen. Derek Kitchen, D-Salt Lake City, said housing needs to be thought of as critical infrastructure.
"We frequently think of infrastructure in terms of highways and rail lines, and airline issues and runways and things like that," Kitchen observed. "But I also think we got to be realistic here, that without stable, affordable housing for Utahns and Americans, we're going to come up short."
Kitchen stressed now, in the early stages of the 2021 legislative session, is the time to act to make more affordable housing a priority.
Sarah Brundage, senior director of public policy for Enterprise Community Partners, wants Congress to pass the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, to strengthen the existing system of low-income housing tax credits.
She noted the program has financed nearly 29,000 affordable housing units in Utah.
"This program is really critical for us having enough affordable housing for people who have experienced homelessness to have support," Brundage contended. "And the long-term stability that we know an affordable, safe and healthy home provides."
At least 11% of Utahns are behind on rent, according to Census Bureau data.
Nationally, nearly one in five renters hasn't caught up, and one in four households with children. The data also show the housing-cost burden falls disproportionately on Black, Brown and Indigenous renters.
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As New York housing advocates demand state lawmakers pass a bill to keep landlords from evicting renters without "good cause," a new report cautioned them about getting what they wish for.
The New York University report found good cause eviction can create long-term challenges for tenants and landlords, including discouraging maintenance investments in new and existing housing, increasing costs to resolve disputes and landlords screening tenants more rigorously.
Vicki Been, Furman Center faculty director at New York University, said alternatives could help improve landlord-tenant relations.
"One would be expanded access to legal counsel," Been pointed out. "What we know is when tenants have counsel, they're much better able to raise the kinds of issues that might be causing them to withhold rent; maintenance issues, other kinds of problems."
She added tenants are much more likely to go to housing court and fight for themselves rather than give up quickly. Other alternatives include exemptions for different kinds of buildings and increasing the range of rents deemed unreasonable, to prevent sharp increases. Several New York towns have declared housing emergencies due to high rent prices, part of what is driving statewide eviction increases.
Good cause eviction's financial effects stem from landlords being required to prove in housing court their reasons for not renewing a renter's lease. It means housing court cases could run beyond the average 133 days to settle. Been noted the protections do not help people looking for apartments and could affect housing availability.
"It doesn't add anything to the supply," Been pointed out. "Indeed, it may limit the supply, in the sense that tenants who enjoy these protections may stay in a bigger apartment, even once their kids are grown, or those kinds of things."
She added housing reforms like good cause eviction must be paired with other regulatory changes.
Not all New Yorkers agree with how they want state government to handle this. A Marist Poll found some people want rental assistance vouchers prioritized, while almost one-quarter said they want more funding for new rental housing development.
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This month marks the 25th anniversary of the Renaissance Children's Center, which serves low-income families and those experiencing homelessness with infants and children up to the time they enter kindergarten.
Susan Dunn, director of the center, said many kids who have spent time in the 6,600 square-foot facility in Lakewood have lived in transitional housing, in cars, or have camped out with their parents as they work to get back on their feet.
"The children are coming here while the parents are looking for work, and going to school, and just rebuilding their lives. And it's a safe place for the children to be and learn and grow," she explained.
Launched in 2005 and operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, the center has eight naturally-lit classrooms and two outdoor play areas. Kids get breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack prepared onsite by a professional chef. Children have space to direct their own learning experience. And a social-skills curriculum helps prepare kids to succeed in school and beyond, by building emotional competence and strengthening their ability to play and solve problems with others.
The center's staff is trained in trauma-informed education, and mental health services are available for children and parents. Dunn said most of the trauma kids experience stem from living in poverty. Many have been separated from their parents because of behavioral-health issues or incarceration, and adds that consistency is key to their recovery.
"They know when meals are served. Everybody sits down at the table and eats together, so there's that community. And then our classrooms are very home-like. It doesn't look like a schoolroom as much as it looks like a living room and a home," Dunn continued.
The center's woodsy outdoor spaces serve as a natural-learning classroom, which promotes math, science, literacy and other skills. Dunn said children get to connect to nature and experience new ways of learning.
"A lot of the kids, they don't really have a big backyard, and so our playgrounds are their big backyard. They get to use their muscles and their skills to climb and check out bugs and rocks and all kinds of things like that," she said.
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For generations, homeownership has been synonymous with the American Dream, but a new Utah report shows housing affordability is at historic lows, with millennials seeing the largest decrease in housing affordability during what the report calls "peak household formation years."
Steve Waldrip, senior adviser for housing strategy and innovation for the State of Utah, said while Utah has some of the highest levels of homeownership in the country, wages haven't increased at the same rate home prices have, leading to a housing crisis.
"Most of our none-homeowner residents cannot afford to get into a home," Waldrip pointed out. "The vast majority, I think we are probably in the 80% range. And that lack of opportunity is really a significant problem going forward."
The Utah Foundation's report found even with possible declines in interest rates and the potential increase in inventory as older generations leave their homes, trends suggest millennials may not achieve the level of past generational affordability until 2030 or beyond. Waldrip considers the report a crucial tool for not only Utah policymakers but for voters as it's a topic of mounting interest in the upcoming elections.
Waldrip acknowledged homeownership may not be for all Utahns and added there are drawbacks to buying a home, including fluctuating markets and other home buying costs. But data from the report show home equity still composes the largest proportion of wealth for U.S. households. Waldrip noted the barriers to homeownership in Utah and across the nation don't discriminate.
"As home prices increase and more and more people drop out of the bottom, which disproportionately impacts the lower socio-economic class of people in the state, but it's also gone up to people who have done everything right," Waldrip emphasized. "They've graduated from school, they got good jobs, they've got careers."
The report found between 2012 and 2022, the value of a median-priced home in the U.S. increased by $190,000, but in Utah the increase came between 2017 and 2022, when the median home price nearly doubled.
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