State Rep. Carol Moss is trying — again — to get millions of dedicated dollars for the Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund.
Moss, a Salt Lake City Democrat, is asking her colleagues to divert 25% of liquor sales profit to provide a constant stream of funding for the housing loan fund that, since 1995, has helped build nearly 25,000 units for people with low incomes, according to a report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
That money from liquor sales normally would go to the state’s general fund. The amount would vary but would have been about $28 million based on last year’s sales. Under HB286, that portion of revenue instead would be earmarked to help people with low incomes buy single-family homes and to provide new or rehabilitated apartments for people with low incomes.
Kael Weston, a former U.S. Department of State diplomat who ran for Congress in 2020 and U.S. Senate in 2022, said 87% of current alcohol revenues go to the general fund. Another 13% goes to various programs, he said, including the state’s school lunch program and alcohol safety and education efforts.
Weston called the bill a “very fair ask” and implored legislators to “follow what the name of the fund is all about.”
“I think it’s exactly what Olene Walker would want,” he said, referring to the state’s first and only female governor who served from 2003 to 2005 and died in 2015.
Moss added that Wayne Niederhauser, the state’s homelessness coordinator, thinks liquor sales are an appropriate source of funding to help provide housing for people struggling to find a steady home.
The fund is Utah’s primary state-funded housing program but, according to the April 2023 report from Gardner Policy Institute, hasn’t received an increase in appropriations since the start of the fund, when it received $2.4 million. That doesn’t include one-time funding or federal grants.
Multiple advocates asked legislators to approve the bill and set up a permanent, predictable stream of money for the fund.
Shawn McMillen, executive director of First Step House, said the state fund has been “extraordinarily powerful” in helping the nonprofit create a “funding stack” and lower possible debt as it develops affordable housing.
It’s common for the fund to run out of money, he said, and adding funding would give nonprofits “a powerful tool that we don’t presently have.”
Tim Funk said the fund could do better and more meaningful work with more dedicated revenue. Funk spoke as an individual but has been an advocate through Crossroads Urban Center, a nonprofit, grassroots organization that helps Utahns with low incomes and disabilities and people of color.
“This money is probably more useful and more meaningful than any dollar you can spend on housing for people who don’t have adequate housing,” Funk told lawmakers.
Marion Willey, director of the Utah Non-Profit Housing Corporation, said there’s a massive need for housing. The organization he leads has a waiting list of 10,000 people for their developments that house low-income people.
“I can only imagine what the other nonprofits have throughout the state,” Willey said. “This dedicated source for the Olene Walker fund is desperately needed.”
Representatives on the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee acknowledged the need for affordable housing but expressed some concerns.
Rep. Paul Cutler, R-Centerville, asked where the money would normally go.
Steve Erickson, an advocate with Crossroads Urban Center and a legislative consultant with the Utah chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, reiterated the money normally would go into the general fund.
The housing loan fund would only get money after other programs that benefit from state liquor sales revenue, he said.
“This would be the last in the queue,” Erickson said.
Rep. David Shallenberger, a Republican representing part of Utah County, said he’s heard a lot about the condition of buildings and roads and needed to think over how the Olene Walker fund could “jump in line in front of the general fund.”
The general fund helps finance infrastructure projects across the state.
And Rep. Troy Shelley, R-Ephraim, wondered aloud if “sometimes the state gets in the way of the free market, and maybe that’s why some of our housing prices are getting inflated.”
Some lawmakers expressed nearly identical concerns last year when the same committee voted down a similar bill from Moss. That bill would have required the state to transfer the same 25% of liquor sale profits to the Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund but did not specify the intended use of those dollars.
The committee has not yet voted on Moss’ bill this year. Members amended an error in the bill and then voted to hold the bill to give legislative analysts time to prepare an updated fiscal note.
Cutler said the bill is an “important policy that we should seriously consider” but wanted to make sure the committee understands the financial impact before voting.
Legislators have not yet discussed another bill from Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, that would combine the fund with the state’s tax-exempt bonding authority. The two programs are administered by the Housing and Community Development Division.
The state received about 90 applications through the Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund and Utah’s Private Activity Bond in the past three years, according to a spokesperson for the division.
Twenty applicants asked for funding through both, state records show, and 22 applied only for private activity bonds, and 49 applied only for funding from the housing loan fund.
Fillmore’s bill has been pulled from the agenda twice as he and stakeholders work to develop a substitute. That substitute, which may or may not include provisions related to the Olene Walker Housing Loan fund, was not posted as of Friday morning.
Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune’s data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions.
