The rental market in Utah’s largest city isn’t easy to navigate. Affordable housing is hard to come by and knowing what tenant resources are available can be tricky. Not to mention the stress of finding a new place to live if your housing is sold or demolished.
That’s why Salt Lake City is launching two new programs to connect renters with tenant services and funding if they’ve been displaced. Both initiatives were recommended by the city’s Thriving in Place study, an analysis done to identify solutions to combat gentrification and displacement.
A little over half of Salt Lake City residents are renters. More than half of those are cost-burdened, meaning they spend over 30% of their income on housing. Statistics like that leave residents “vulnerable to displacement,” said Mayor Erin Mendenhall at an Oct. 30 news conference announcing the program.
The first program is a tenant resource center in partnership with the Community Development Corporation of Utah. Chief financial officer Sarah Beaumont said it aims to “fill a gap where there hasn't been a dedicated resource for renters.”
Tenants will be able to report problems with their current living situation and find renter resources and education. There are also five “community navigators,” who can speak to tenants in both English and Spanish on a variety of issues.
"We can provide help on budget[ing], help people understand their credit and how that impacts their ability to get into affordable housing,” Beaumont said.
The navigators can also connect renters with resources outside the housing sphere, Beaumont said, including food insecurity or conflicts with their landlord.
The second program is the Relocation Assistance Fund for Tenants.
Eligible tenants displaced from their homes can apply for help to pay for certain expenses, Mendenhall said, such as “utility costs, security deposits, pet deposits and other fees that come up with setting up your new home.”
Rudi Matthes, policy manager for Salt Lake City’s Department of Community and Neighborhoods, said there is roughly $180,000 available for tenants forced to move due to:
- Demolition of housing
- Substantial renovation that prohibits a tenant from living there during the process
- Removal of income restrictions
- Landlord changes to the use of housing, such as selling the property altogether
Tenants who have been evicted are not eligible for assistance. Matthes said tenants also need to be at or below 80% of the area median income to qualify. Additionally, funding is only for tenants who live in Salt Lake City.
Mendenhall said the amount of money each applicant is awarded depends on the number of people in the household and the number of bedrooms in the unit. For example, a displaced family of four living in a two-bedroom home is eligible for up to $6,992.
For Salt Lake City Councilmember Victoria Petro, these programs offer tangible solutions to the city’s growing housing struggles.
“These are the first steps in a proactive posture to make sure that this growth trajectory is one of actual growth and not one of displacement,” she said.
“We know that eviction and losing housing starts a cascading effect of things that can cripple a family for generations, and we understand the value of intervening at that crisis point to avoid all of those many negatives that could potentially come.”
While Mendenhall said the two housing programs implemented by the city are “significant milestones,” she added the city isn’t done executing plans born from the Thriving in Place study.
“We're ambitious because we've lived in these circumstances, and most of Salt Lakers are living as renters with the ambiguity of a growing market.”
