This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Notice the terminology people use in talking about all the housing, particularly apartment buildings, going up in rapidly growing communities such as Salt Lake City.
Most of what's being built, planned and desired falls into one of two categories. It's either "market rate" — that is, the going price for rental units as set by the law of supply and demand — or "affordable" — that is, within reach of larger numbers of lower-income and working class families.
The fact that the "market" clearly isn't providing enough necessary things that real people can "afford" means a market is not functioning as markets should, providing basic goods for those who can't afford more even as it meets whatever demand there is for luxury alternatives.
Such a failure of the marketplace demands that government put its thumb on the scales and find ways to provide the necessities that the private sector either cannot or will not. Not that that's easy.
Notice the conflicted process by which the Salt Lake City Council made its most recent decision on the subject, a 4-3 vote approving something called the Bodhi Apartment Project, an 80-unit complex with 60 "affordable" units planned for 750 W. North Temple.
To the four council members who voted for the project, any addition of rental units that working-class people can actually live in is a good idea. To the three who voted against it, the fact that yet another such project has been targeted at the city's west side, an area that already has more than its share of affordable-housing projects, isn't fair.
Both views are correct. And council members on both sides of that vote were right to lament the fact that they don't have a policy on how to go about encouraging more affordable housing in more of the city's neighborhoods.
The nature of home and apartment construction means that the city has a role in the market, more so than in the parts of the economy that produce consumer goods such as groceries, electronics and cars.
Cities determine zoning, set building codes and design standards, issue permits and lay — and sometimes forgive — property taxes. How Salt Lake City turns each of those dials and flips each of those switches matters a lot in determining the future of the housing stock in the city.
Doing it right will take a constant, and nimble, assessment of options that nudge and cajole developers to open up the housing market in ways that do not sell out proper standards or torpedo existing neighborhoods.
That's the very definition of easier said than done. That's why it's good to see the City Council is so concerned about it, even if it hasn't come up with a simple answer.
Because there isn't one.