SALT LAKE CITY Utah s 2021 legislative session marked milestones in investments in affordable housing and sweeping changes to the homeless governance system, all meant to enact measurable improvements in two of the Beehive State s biggest issues.
The Legislature approved $50 million in funding to affordable housing initiatives and homelessness, which advocates described as a record in the state. Leaders with the private philanthropy community announced Wednesday those funds will be multiplied through private donations and investments to $730 million. Good things are taking place, and we re deploying innovative solutions and seeing positive impacts, Utah philanthropist and homeless advocate Gail Miller said.
Homeless system restructuring
Utah Legislature made sweeping changes to homeless, housing systems deseret.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from deseret.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY The Wasatch Front is on the verge of a housing affordability crisis, analysts say, and unless measures are taken immediately to address the issue, thousands of Utahns will be in danger of being priced out of the market.
The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, in conjunction with the Salt Lake Chamber’s Housing Gap Coalition, Wednesday released a research study identifying several “best practices” that may give local municipalities the greatest chance to meeting the state’s housing affordability challenge, which has seen housing prices skyrocket since 2014.
“We’ve had six years of housing price increases that’s by far the longest period we’ve ever had continuous significant increases in housing prices,” said study author Jim Wood, Ivory-Boyer Senior Fellow at the University of Utah’s Gardner Institute. “Not the average like 3% or 4%, this year it’s going to be double digits. In the