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Housing advocates press lawmakers to pass $100 million bond to ‘jump-start’ affordable housing

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) l-r Rep. Rebecca Edwards, R-North Salt Lake, and Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake City, talk with Alexandra Crowley, right, holding her daughter Peitience, 1. Crowley and her husband, who she says has a good paying job, struggle to make ends meet with a $1150/mo. rent in a cramped triplex. "I'm thankful to have a home at least," she said. Affordable housing advocates joined lawmakers, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 to promote three housing-related bills to finance affordable-housing construction. .

With six working days left in the legislative session, affordable-housing advocates Wednesday joined lawmakers in a Capitol Hill briefing to promote three housing-related bills, the weightiest of which would see the state borrow as much as $100 million to finance affordable-housing construction.

The actual amount borrowed under HB464 would be determined by legislative leadership, said sponsor Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake City. But $100 million for housing, financed through the regular state bonding process, could finance as many as 13,000 apartments and generate $260 million in income from salaries and purchases and $50 million in tax revenue, he said.

“We have bonded for housing before,” Briscoe told an audience of about 100. “We borrowed $1 billion last year for some road projects. … We can find $100 million to jump-start some low-income and some affordable housing.”

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) l-r Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake City and Rep. Rebecca Edwards, R-North Salt Lake talk with Alexandra Crowley, center, holding her daughter Peitience, 1. Crowley and her husband, who she says has a good paying job, struggle to make ends meet with a $1150/mo. rent in a cramped triplex. "I'm thankful to have a home at least," she said. Affordable housing advocates joined lawmakers, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 to promote three housing-related bills to finance affordable-housing construction. .

Briscoe and others repeatedly cited a statistic from the National Low Income Housing Coalition that says Utah has a shortage of more than 40,000 affordable homes. His bill is awaiting a hearing before the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee.

The other bills cited Wednesday:

• HB259, sponsored by Rep. Logan Wilde, R-Croydon, which would require counties and cities to create plans for moderate-income housing. It’s pending on the House floor.

• HB430, sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Edwards, R-North Salt Lake, would create a five-year state commission to study housing affordability needs and options in the state. It has passed the House and awaits action in the Senate.

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