Salt Lake City has reached a record for spending in one year to help build and preserve affordable housing with approval this week of $17.7 million for 14 projects.
The low-interest loans, approved through the city’s Redevelopment Agency, are meant to support new construction of as many as 1,549 affordable homes, including dwellings with added bedrooms more suitable for families and units located in neighborhoods offering more economic and social advantages.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall called this year’s sum “special” not only for its size but also the motivation behind it.
“Every single dollar,” Mendenhall said in a statement, “is committed to affordable units in planned projects, not programs or initiatives, but 1,549 actual doors that families in Salt Lake City will call home.”
The mayor added that robust interest from developers seeking the annual assistance signaled their desire to build homes affordable “at levels we have never seen before.”
Since 2011, the RDA has spent upward of $80 million in various kinds of financial support to builders as city officials try to make a dent in a dire shortage of affordable homes for sale or rent. Overall, completed and pending projects receiving the city’s backing have produced about 7,388 units since 2015, with roughly 3,700 of those one-bedroom dwellings.
Fresh estimates now put the city’s deficit of affordable units at roughly 17,366 homes.
City Council member Alejandro Puy, who heads the RDA board, said the latest round of loans prioritizes creating housing “affordable and accessible to extremely low-income individuals and families that are homeless or at risk of homelessness.”
Encouraging development of more affordable three- and four-bedroom residences, Puy said, “gives families and larger households the opportunity to experience urban living.”
All but two of the projects being funded are located west of State Street. Only one, Project Open 3 at 529 W. 400 North, will get a $710,00 loan to build 23 dwellings available for ownership.
An office tower being converted to apartments at 515 E. 100 South will receive $2.7 million set aside to lure affordable residential developments to more affluent neighborhoods on the city’s east side, defined by city officials as high-opportunity areas. Known as 515 Tower, it will yield 96 new apartments affordable to tenants making 60% or less of the region’s median income, according to the RDA.
Another project, Fairmont Heights II, will get a $2.7 million loan to help it acquire land for future construction of 55 dwellings at 2257 S. 1100 East, which is also deemed to be in a high-opportunity area.
Other loan recipients include:
• 2nd South Apartments, 934 W.-948 W. 200 South, $2.4 million, 105 units.
• 9Ten West, 910 W. North Temple, $1 million, 180 units.
• Alliance House 1805 Rebuild, 805 S. Main, $500,000, 16 units.
• Book Cliffs Lodge, 1159 S. West Temple, $740,000, 155 units.
• Citizens West 4, 515 W. 300 North, $400,000, 152 units.
• Liberty Corner, 1265 S. 300 West, $4.5 million, 200 units.
• New City Plaza Apartments (1966 S. 200 East) $895,000, historic preservation and adaptive reuse, 299 units.
• Norbridge Court, 511 W. 200 South, $895,000, historic preservation and adaptive reuse, 62 units.
• Pharos Apartments, 915 W. 200 North, $880,000, 34 units.
• The Catherine, 1881 W. North Temple, Phase 1, $1 million, 228 units; Phase 2, $134,323, 144 units.
