After a unanimous vote by the Salt Lake City Council on Oct. 17, the city now has an official anti-displacement plan. It’s called “Thriving in Place.” The aim is to identify ways to help residents stay in their current homes and not be forced out by rising housing costs.
“Some of these [solutions] are already existing, some of them will be new,” said Angela Price, the policy director for the city’s Community and Neighborhood department, during a Sept. 12 discussion on the initiative. “I think it's important to focus on that. This is the roadmap that will help us guide where we want to be headed for our anti-displacement strategies in the future.”
Every year since 2020, more and more people are experiencing homelessness in Utah, according to state data. Affordable housing and homelessness have been central in the campaigns for mayor and city council this election season.
Included in the plan are increased investments in services to help tenants avoid eviction, revisions to how the city interacts with its partners and impacted residents and a prioritization of the construction of new affordable housing.
“We're cautiously optimistic to see some of these initiatives come forward and see how some of the anti-displacement and gentrification issues will be applied to the west side,” said Jason Wessel, a Rose Park resident and vice president of the Westside Coalition, during the council meeting’s public comment period.
Also included is an incentive package to encourage affordable housing construction. Public feedback on the incentives, however, has been mixed. Measures like increasing the allowed building height and density in certain areas of the city had some residents concerned about negative long-term consequences.
“We are losing single-family homes because we don't care about our children, which may be an overstatement, but that's how I'm feeling at this particular moment,” said Avenues resident, and real estate agent, Merrilee Morgan. “Schools are very important. Single-family homes are very important. Any time we destroy our inventory of single-family homes, we deny first-time homebuyers, second-time homebuyers the right to build generational wealth.”
Neighborhoods are changing as the city grows and ages — like much of the state. Due to dropping enrollment rates over the last eight years, the Salt Lake City School District has identified seven schools for potential future closures. Recent increases in housing costs have been a driving factor in families and teachers moving to more wallet-friendly corners of the state.
Other residents expressed their belief that the incentives, while not all bad, need a more targeted approach that suits each neighborhood.
“This particular proposal … is a one-size-fits-all proposal,” said East Bench resident David Leta. “And what you get with one size fits all is a bunch of poorly dressed neighborhoods that don't fit… We're not opposed to all change. We realize there's a need for affordable housing. However, even making those changes, what we think needs to happen is that there should be some restrictions.”
Some were simply concerned about the cost of building new housing.
“The most sustainable building is the one that already exists,” added Lynn Pershing. “Demolition of single-family homes, especially in historic districts for replacement with fourplexes will be more expensive than rehabilitation of existing housing.”
According to the city, feedback from more than 2,500 residents was taken into account when formulating the Thriving in Place plan. Included in that feedback was a community desire to use city-owned land to develop future affordable housing.
After hearing the public’s feedback, the council did not set a date to vote on the affordable housing incentives.
