This story is part of The Salt Lake Tribune’s ongoing commitment to identify solutions to Utah’s biggest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab.
[Subscribe to our newsletter here]
Twenty-somethings aren’t leaving the nest. Full-time workers are doubling and tripling up in apartment rentals, and grandparents are lamenting kids who had to leave the state to start families of their own.
Utahns are struggling with the soaring cost of housing, and state and elected leaders are echoing their concerns.
So what, exactly, is holding up the construction of more affordable housing?
Some city officials fear that “community opposition” is now among the biggest obstacles, according to new survey results from the Utah Foundation.
About 78% of city leaders and staffers involved in housing policy, according to the new report, told the nonprofit think tank’s pollsters that they “strongly or somewhat” agree that municipal officials “who pursue affordable housing over resident concerns face political consequences.”
But a majority (65%) said they still did not “welcome additional state-mandated regulations to provide municipal officials with ‘guidance’ or ‘political cover’ for increasing housing density and affordability.”
There are some housing solutions that state leaders and city officials widely support, such as accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and building smaller homes. These more palatable answers are already rolling out in some communities.
The new research, report author John Salevurakis concludes, “offers a discussion of how municipalities might best present their own objectives in an environment sometimes opposed to affordable housing.”
Other barriers — like building new roads, sidewalks and sewer lines, along with the rising costs of construction — are proving trickier to tackle, although the Utah Legislature recently took steps to address some of those issues in its latest session.
Although affordable housing is a statewide concern, in all Utah and municipalities, the needs and worries are a little different.
“We have over 1,400 mayors and council members in the state representing 255 cities and towns,” said Cameron Diehl, executive director of Utah League of Cities and Towns. “And each city and town has a unique story to tell, whether that’s infrastructure or access to transportation and economic development.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Wayne Kartchner sits on the porch of his recently renovated accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, beside his home in Farmington on Friday, March 22, 2024.
Frustrated with growth
“Most Utahns,” Diehl said, “are frustrated around growth.” They’re frustrated with crowded trails, traffic-clogged streets and full school classrooms.
“That impacts how a lot of residents view new housing developments,” Diehl said. “That said, I also think there’s a recognition around Utahns that they want their kids to have opportunities to own homes.”
What’s more, Utah cities and towns aren’t all aligned on the kinds of growth they want.
“Affordable housing can mean very different things in different places,” said Alessandro Rigolon, an associate professor at the University of Utah’s department of city & metropolitan planning.
While community opposition is a problem in Salt Lake City, Rigolon said, “the bigger part is that we simply don’t have enough money to build publicly funded affordable housing.”
A proposal to build a five-story apartment downtown might fly through while the same residential development in rural or suburban communities could face pushback.
Plus, residents can grow increasingly frustrated when projects might promise to bring more affordable homes for sale to a community but instead produce out-of-reach rentals.
“All it takes is one development that doesn’t work out the way it was intended to fray some of that public trust,” Diehl said, “and then it’s hard to get it back.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The first modern high-rise apartment community in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, Liberty Sky Apartments offers 272 residential units featuring studio, 1 and 2 bedroom apartment homes as seen on Tuesday, May 25, 2021.
Where costs come in
Financing and building new infrastructure capacity for city services that support housing were other top barriers to housing noted by city officials and staffers.
The Utah Foundation survey asked respondents to identify the “two most significant obstacles” to increased affordable housing in their communities. Nearly 35% chose financing barriers while 27% pointed to insufficient infrastructure capacity. “Internal political opposition” was identified as a top obstacle by 18% of respondents.
Those issues, Diehl agreed, are top concerns for city officials.
The league’s own surveys indicate that Utah communities have nearly 200,000 housing units already poised for construction. So why aren’t those units getting built?
Everything, Diehl said, is more expensive, from land and labor to a host of construction materials, essential home fixtures and more. “The cost of a water tank,” Diehl said, “has doubled in five years in some places.”
Three bills passed recently by the Legislature are aimed directly at addressing some of those obstacles.
HB572 set up a $300 million subsidized loan fund for builders, while SB168 and SB268 created a way for cities to “find additional revenue sources to pay for that necessary infrastructure,” Diehl said, through tax-increment financing.
Whether those changes actually result in tens of thousands of more homes, let alone ones that middle-class Utahns can afford, remains to be seen.
More palatable solutions
Some approaches to boosting Utah’s housing stock drew greater support from city leaders and administrators than others.
About 57% of survey respondents were “most supportive” of reforming zoning code to allow for smaller lots and 71% supported encouraging ADUs. More than 60% supported “middle housing” — units that are between single-family homes and large apartment complexes like duplexes or town homes.
Support for ADUs and smaller lot sizes makes sense, according to Rigolon, and might help fill in some neighborhoods.
“Those are changes that are incremental and don’t radically make a difference in the landscape of a city,” Rigolon said. ADUs can be an important tool for helping Utahns age in place and rent out their family-size homes, he said, but the state will need a “a compilation of solutions” to actually solve the crisis.
That’s true particularly when it comes to providing subsidized housing for the lowest income Utahns.
This much municipalities agree on: They don’t want the Legislature to dictate local housing policy. Fewer than 1 in 10 (8%) of respondents said they’d “very much” welcome that kind of intervention.
“Our members don’t want political cover,” Diehl said. “They want political partnerships, because, at the end of the day, the residents who elect the mayor also elect their local [lawmakers], they elect the governor, and they want us all working together to solve these problems.”
