In today’s “new era of housing,” there’s no one thing that exists to solve the ongoing crisis, Steve Waldrip told Utah lawmakers.
“It’s a combination of a hundred different things, some bigger, some smaller,” said Waldrip, a former legislator who serves as Gov. Spencer Cox’s senior adviser for housing strategy.
In Utah, those different programs are spread over at least eight different state departments, divisions and boards, based on a flow chart Waldrip showed during an interim committee meeting. Sometimes, responsibilities for one program are split between different agencies.
Waldrip said he tried to make the pieces connect between shared responsibilities, but by the end, the flow chart was unreadable.
“If this gives you a headache, you’re not alone,” he said.
Oversight of Utah's various housing programs is split between multiple departments, divisions and boards.
Following recommendations from a November 2023 audit of state housing policy, legislators are looking for ways to consolidate the efforts to address housing affordability spread across multiple agencies.
A concurrent resolution passed during the most recent Legislative session commits lawmakers and Cox to “begin the process of identifying programs for streamlining during the 2025 interim.”
Waldrip and leaders of other state agencies presented to the Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee as part of those efforts – one of three goals the committee has set related to housing for the interim.
There is opportunity for a structural rework to streamline the processes, Waldrip said, thus allowing the market to do its job and develop homes.
For example, he said, the Utah Department of Workforce Services provides staff support for boards that award Private Activity Bonds (PABs) and Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund dollars, and the former also interfaces with Utah Housing Corporation.
That means approval is needed from two different entities for PABs, he said, and most developers also go to the Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund Board for gap funding.
The state did create a joint application for the programs. But there’s still “some redundancy of process and program,” Waldrip said, and an opportunity for some structural changes to possibly streamline the process.
Staff are currently considering where best to have a “clearing house” for all things housing, Waldrip said. That could mean moving some pieces between departments, creating a new department or other possible changes, he said.
He said to expect recommendations in the fall.
Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune’s data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions.
