This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The allocation of an extra $220,000 for tax credit properties by the Utah Housing Corporation is needed. There is no denying that there is a housing and homeless crisis in Salt Lake City. However, the allocation of more money for tax credit apartments is not a quick fix for this issue. Already existing tax credit properties are in need of an overhaul in order to ensure more success of homeless individuals who qualify for them.
I have lived in two different tax credit properties over the last two years. I didn't fully know what I was getting into when I initially signed the lease for my apartment. Drug use is rampant in my building, and throughout the winter I would leave for work in the morning and have to step over the bodies of people sleeping in the hallways. The management company is almost impossible to get hold of.
Homelessness isn't something that will go away overnight. However, there needs to be more oversight in these buildings to improve the quality of life of everyone who lives there. Tax credit approval needs to be harder for management companies to acquire, to assure that they are prepared to serve the chronically homeless.
Taylor Hartman
Salt Lake City