Update, Dec. 4, 2024: Ogden City Council heard public comments about the proposed facility on Dec. 3. Councilmembers voted to discuss the topic further on Jan. 7 and vote on Jan. 14. Our original story continues below.
Location, location, location: that’s the center of the debate over a proposed deeply affordable housing facility in Ogden’s East Central neighborhood. Ogden City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to allow the project.
Weber Housing Authority, a county-level agency, says the new facility would take people off the streets. Opponents say they are worried about the negative effects of “concentrated poverty,” and they want to bring more wealth to the area.
Weber Housing Authority owns the former Aspen Assisted Living facility at 2325 Madison Ave. and plans to convert it to 25 units for chronically homeless disabled individuals. It would have three full-time case managers and 24-hour supervision, according to executive director Andi Beadles. Residents would pay 30% of their income in rent, with the rest subsidized by an attainable housing grant.
The Ogden City Planning Commission found the project inconsistent with the city’s General Plan in December 2023. After some changes, including reducing the number of units, the commission approved it in August 2024.
The facility would serve people with “severe and persistent mental illness,” who Beadles said have difficulty staying housed in traditional units.
“It's gotten to the point where it's just not fair of us to house them with private landlords,” she said. “For the case management component, we need to have more oversight.”
Weber Housing Authority would also move their offices on-site, in part because they’ve outgrown their space with Weber Human Services. The move would also allow them to be on hand in case issues arise.
Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski is in favor, but with a caveat.
“I have committed to the Weber Housing Authority and the Weber County Commission that I'd support this project under the condition that this is the last of this type in this kind of area,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development designates the neighborhood around the Aspen building as a racially/ethnically-concentrated area of poverty and says concentrating poverty can have negative effects on residents. The mayor said he’s been working to bring a broader range of incomes to the area.
“We've worked really hard to bring more neighborhood stability and try and change the dynamic from high rates of rental to higher rates of ownership,” he said. “That's a housing approach that we're trying to take across the city, is to have a balance of different housing types.”
State code gives Ogden City Council and the Ogden Housing Authority the power to decide whether the project continues. Both entities must approve it in order for it to go through.
City Councilor Dave Graf, whose district includes the area east of Madison Avenue directly across from the Aspen building, plans to vote against the facility because of its location.
“I'm looking at the weight of populations like this that already reside in this neighborhood, and is it an overburdening addition to a neighborhood that carries a lot in the form of Weber social services and group homes?” he said.
Many of the city’s subsidized housing facilities are in the East Central neighborhood, including more than a half dozen within two blocks of the project.
“This is an important neighborhood for Ogden City. It's a historic neighborhood,” said Graf, noting its proximity to Lester Park, the creative arts district and the OGX bus rapid transit line.
When it comes to affordable housing, “Ogden is punching way above its weight,” said Nadolski.
The city is home to 32% of Weber County residents and 85% of the county’s subsidized housing units.
In 2022, the median household income in Ogden was roughly $66,000, compared to $82,000 in Weber County as a whole, according to census estimates.
Graf wants to narrow that gap.
“We need more folks that have some disposable income in their pockets after they're done meeting their monthly commitments, and folks that are living in supported housing — it's tough,” he said. “That doesn't mean that they shouldn't be here, but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive to bring others here as well.”
To spread the wealth — or lack thereof — Graf and Nadolski wish the Weber Housing Authority would find a facility in another part of the county.
But Beadles said the housing authority tried.
“I can’t stress that enough – that we did look outside of Ogden, but we just felt like we needed to have something that was close enough to services that our people could access,” she said.
Weber Human Services, the Department of Workforce Services and the Social Security Administration are within a 25-minute walk or bus ride from the Aspen building.
“Having a project in another jurisdiction, Roy for example — there's no way that they would be able to get on a bus and then to get into Ogden to get the services that they need,” she said.
Mayor Nadolski said proximity isn’t the whole answer.
“What we're struggling with, and other communities like Ogden struggle with, is this automatic desire to pack all of the poverty in one place, all under the guise and the understanding that that's where services are,” he said. “But we find that even when services are closely located to housing, that it's still a struggle to connect people that need the services with the services.”
Councilmember Graf said the project would make more sense in an area closer to the services Beadles mentioned, or near Lantern House. But Lantern House is in a manufacturing zone that doesn’t allow residential units, and the City Council voted in October to restrict housing in its next nearest zones, which are commercial.
If the city council rejects the project, Beadles said some potential residents will keep sleeping on the streets.
“If they were not there, [they] would just be here in this local vicinity [near Weber Human Services], and have been for years and years and years.”
She said some of them don’t have any other options.
“We're their family. They don't have family, they don't have support, they don't have other people that they can rely on.”
Graf said he wants to help those in need while balancing what’s best for all residents.
“I really would like to see Ogden City become a jewel. It just needs a little polishing, and money does that, and economic development,” he said.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
