The Point’s prison redevelopment is a rare opportunity for housing in Utah. Robert Gehrke says it shouldn’t be squandered.

In 1940, the state began building a new prison in Draper, which at the time was pretty much the middle of nowhere. Then, it would have been difficult to imagine that someday the property would be some of the most sought-after land in Utah, smack in the middle of a rapidly developing community.

Now, more than 80 years after that work started, with Utah’s inmates moved to the new mosquito-infested locale and the state beginning demolition on the old penitentiary, we have a unique, almost unprecedented opportunity — one we have to get right, not just to make sure there is a vibrant, sustainable community, but to make a significant dent in our untenable affordable housing crisis.

But members of a commission created to come up with an affordable housing strategy are so far unimpressed, to put it mildly, with the current vision for the first phase of the build-out of The Point project.

“It’s very difficult to swallow this proposal,” Mike Gallegos, a member of the Commission on Housing Affordability, said at a meeting this week where they got a glimpse of the initial plans for the project. “This is not where we intended to be at this point.”

He wasn’t alone in his disappointment as members saw projections that, as of now, just 423 of the 3,381 residences expected in Phase One of the project — or 12.5% of the units — would be considered affordable, meaning they would be within reach of a family of four making just under $74,000.

It was, according to The Point planners, all the developers could do and still make the project “pencil out.”

“It seems low for the affordable housing [portion],” Wayne Niederhauser, the state homelessness coordinator opined during the meeting. If there aren’t enough units for the people — especially those at very low-income levels — who work in the commercial space planned at The Point, it shifts the burden off to surrounding communities, he explained.

Niederhauser said that the Legislature has enacted laws to try to coax cities to remove obstacles to affordability and suggested the state should lead by example, especially when it comes to those with very low incomes.

“We passed [legislation] trying to force cities all over the Wasatch Front and across the state to implement these policies so they’re more sustaining, so people don’t become homeless. Please, we don’t need any more people who are homeless,” Niederhauser said.

He and others on the commission suggested that, if the developer can’t provide more affordable units and still make the math work, it might be up to the state to provide subsidies of some sort.

“This is our opportunity to show other communities across the state how we can have a sustaining housing model and I just hope we don’t lose sight of that and it doesn’t get away from us,” Niederhauser said.

Commission member Chris Gamvroulas is a developer who said he built two master-plan communities in West Jordan where 10% of the units were considered affordable, but The Point has one major benefit other projects don’t: The state still owns the land at The Point.

What that means is that the developers don’t have to acquire the land — a significant up-front saving, essentially a built-in subsidy for the project.

“I honestly expected these numbers to be 30% to 40%,” Gamvroulas said. “Maybe the state needs to step up a little more and create some more opportunities for affordability. It just seems low.”

Listening to all of this talk of housing subsidies and needing the state to “step up” to create opportunities for low-income housing seemed a little surreal in a state where, for many, the government doesn’t solve problems, it IS the problem.

But they are right. Unaffordable housing poses a significant risk to our state’s outlook. If our kids or grandkids can’t earn enough to put a roof over their heads, they will find somewhere that they can and the Wasatch Front will become the next San Francisco, Seattle and Denver where exorbitantly high costs are driving out a generation.

And, as Niederhauser noted, we won’t be able to impact our homelessness problem if housing is out of reach for the working poor.

Chief operating officer of The Point project, Scott Cuthbertson, emphasized the numbers he presented are preliminary and negotiations with the developer — a consortium of developers known as Lincoln-Colmena-Wadsworth — are ongoing.

Cuthbertson said they are looking at establishing a trust fund — Draper City has already pledged $2 million — to provide downpayment and rent assistance and the potential to include tiny homes and studio apartments that would be more affordable.

What we really need is for the state to use some of this year’s budget surplus to support this project in a meaningful way. Put simply, 423 affordable units is woefully inadequate and it would be a shame to squander an opportunity to move the needle on housing affordability, the likes of which we may not see again for the next 80 years.