Nearly $55 million in state funding will help create about 1,100 new affordable housing units as Utah grapples with the twin crises of homelessness and soaring real estate prices.
The Utah Homelessness Council, created in 2021, voted unanimously Friday to allocate the unprecedented amount approved by state lawmakers this year.
Tricia Davis, assistant director of Utah’s Office of Homeless Services, said the one-time infusion comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, a pandemic-relief measure passed by Congress last year.
“It’s going to make a significant impact,” she said, “but there is definitely the need for more.”
More than $30 million of the money will come to Salt Lake County. It includes:
Nearly $10.3 million to Friends of Switchpoint to build The Point Fairpark in west Salt Lake City. The project calls for converting a motel into an apartment building with 94 income-restricted units, including 44 that will be deeply affordable.
$9 million for the second phase of Pamela’s Place near downtown Salt Lake City. The project will create 115 deeply affordable units.
$4 million to The Other Side Academy for a yet-to-be-approved village of tiny homes on Salt Lake City’s west side that would create 54 deeply affordable units.
Nearly $3.9 million to convert the Ramada at 1659 W. North Temple into 197 deeply affordable units. The property, which served as a temporary overflow shelter last winter, will operate under the name Ville 1659.
$1 million to the development group TWG to construct a new apartment building at 152 W. 4250 South in Murray. The building would have 40 income-restricted units, including five deeply affordable ones.
$800,000 to nonprofit developer Community Development Corporation of Utah for a new development at 4101 S. Howick St. in Millcreek that will have 150 income-restricted units, including 11 deeply affordable ones.
$500,000 to Community Development Corporation of Utah for the Richmond Flats project on Salt Lake City’s east side. The funding will support 55 income-restricted units, including five that are deeply affordable
$780,000 will go to developer BlueLine to take over the Stratford Apartments in downtown Salt Lake City. The building will offer 46 deeply affordable units. (The Stratford already has affordable housing, but the current owner wants to sell the building. BlueLine would preserve the apartments as an affordable option.)
More than $16 million will go to Weber, Washington and Utah counties for affordable housing projects. Iron and Sevier counties, meanwhile, will receive a combined $7 million to support such efforts.
In total, the roughly $53.3 million the council approved will support 1,078 affordable units, 679 of which will be deeply affordable. More than 500 will be dedicated to helping the state’s unsheltered population.
The remaining $1.7 million the state allocated to housing will be used to ensure recipients follow through with their proposals.
Contract negotiations for each project can begin immediately.
SB238, which set up the fund this year, required grant applicants to show both a housing and service plan, according to Wayne Niederhauser, state homeless coordinator.
“We know that housing and services go together,” he said during Friday’s meeting. “One does not work without the other.”
Of the $168 million worth of projects the state received applications for, the newly approved funding is going to the top projects, Niederhauser said. Officials reviewed the proposals last month and looked at what funding applicants already had in place, how many units each project would create, project budgets, proposed service plans and how quickly each unit could come on line.
Although the amount is historic, it represents less than half the $128 million Gov. Spencer Cox proposed.
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