Utah has done so much on so many levels to address homelessness over the past several years, even managing to reduce homelessness among veterans to 4%. But until we as a state get serious about investing in deeply affordable housing, we will continue to see growing numbers of people sleeping on the streets in our cities and suburbs.
Our state was an early adopter of Housing First, and we have seen it work. Ninety-three percent of our residents in permanent supportive housing stay housed. Eighty percent of residents in rapid-rehousing programs stay housed. We know housing people gives them the security they need to then address the bigger issues that impact their success, such as chronic health conditions, addiction and mental health issues.
The state also invested heavily in our new homeless resource center model to ensure the best possible outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness. That model, however, will only work if there is housing available for people to move into and open beds in the homeless resource centers for the next soon to be housed individuals.
Which is why legislative resistance to funding deeply affordable housing is so disheartening for those of us who have been working for so long to render homelessness brief, rare and non-recurring.
One bill thus far discusses affordable housing, Senate Bill 164 Utah Housing Affordability Amendments. This bill encourages development of homes affordable to people making no more than 70% of area median income and public employees. In Salt Lake County, area median income is $87,900. Seventy percent would include people making about $29 per hour. But Utah has more than 300,000 people living below the federal poverty line, which is closer to 15% AMI, who are rarely targeted for housing developments, and won’t be targeted under SB164.
Those 300,000 are making minimum wage or slightly above. With their annual salaries of around $15,080, they should spend no more than $377 per month on housing to be financially stable. Look at any county in this state and try and find a rental one person can obtain for $377 per month.
To put some emphasis on this, even when a family has rental assistance and supportive services, it is taking two to three months to find a place. The wait is much longer for our permanent supportive housing options which are the solution for people who have been experiencing chronic homelessness and need wrap-around services.
We have heard some legislators refer to deeply affordable housing (in other words, housing affordable to the 300,000) as an entitlement, which they oppose granting to low-income households. Rather than argue what an entitlement is, let’s ask what benefit we get from continuing to allow our poorest residents to remain homeless? Especially when we know, based on data, that the percentage of formerly homeless individuals who remain housed once they obtain a more permanent home is steadily increasing.
Ensuring people are able to access their basic needs — food, shelter, clothing, education, employment — is the right thing to do, and the best thing we can do for our state’s prosperity. Hate seeing people sleeping on the street? Want people motivated to overcome addiction and/or seek treatments they need to be productive citizens? Want an economy that allows people we have recently recognized as essential workers to be able to afford to live? Then deeply affordable housing targeted to people at or below 30% AMI is one critical answer.
SB164 will help develop some newly affordable units for those in the mid-income levels, and that’s a good thing. But once again we will finish out another legislative session without making a dent in the roughly 50,000-unit deficit of housing available to people living deep in poverty across our state.
That is not just an embarrassment for us as a state, it is travesty for thousands of Utahns who live without the basic human dignity of a place to call home.
Jean Hill
Rob Wesemann
Jean Hill and Rob Wesemann are co-chairs of the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness.
