With the National League of Cities holding its annual City Summit in Salt Lake City this week, municipal leaders from around the country on Thursday spotlighted some of the most pressing issues they’re working to address.
“Our Salt Lake City team has been able to show our friends from cities, towns and villages across the country the initiatives we’re working on at the local level. From the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic games that are coming back here, to affordable housing spreading to every corner of Salt Lake City to addressing the demands of our shrinking Great Salt Lake,” Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said.
With housing prices skyrocketing across the city and the Wasatch Front, it’s no surprise one of the prevailing topics was affordable housing.
Zillow shows that Salt Lake City’s median home cost has jumped from $312,740 in June 2017 — the first month it began tracking median home prices in the city — to $559,794 in September of this year. This equates to a near 80% increase in just over eight years.
Salt Lake City has directed more than $180 million toward the issue in its history, nearly $100 million of which was directed for projects completed over the past decade, according to the city’s affordable housing dashboard,
In August, Mendenhall announced the next steps in the renovation of the city’s 8.75-acre Fleet Block would include designated affordable housing units.
The developments will also incorporate the city’s first-ever community benefits agreement.
“That means that the people who live here and work here will be in the driver’s seat, deciding what future features and amenities they want to see in these developments. That could be more public art, better lighting or space for local small businesses,” Mendenhall said in August. “The point is that it’s going to be shaped by the people who know this neighborhood best.”
Earlier in November, the Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency issued a notice letting developers and other housing builders know that it has over $14.4 million in funding for affordable housing projects available for distribution.
Along with learning from success stories in other cities, Mendenhall is hoping Salt Lake City can also serve as an example of ways to address the housing crisis.
“These leaders and the thousands that are here from other cities and towns are being able to go out on mobile workshops to check out our tiny home community (the Other Side Village) that Salt Lake City helped to create. We’re also looking at the Perpetual Housing Fund that Salt Lake City put 10 million of our (American Rescue Plan) dollars into, which is creating wealth-building opportunities.
“We put over $144 million in the private market to stimulate more deeply affordable housing growth and we’re here to share some of those projects — even down to the details of how we put those contracts together — with all these friends from around the country,” Mendenhall said.