Salt Lake County Consolidated Plan

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Executive Summary

Salt Lake County Consolidated Plan contains the Needs Assessment, Five Year Strategy and Action Plan of the Salt Lake Urban County and the members of the Salt Lake County Consortium. Salt Lake City is not included.

Urban County

The Salt Lake Urban County includes unincorporated Salt Lake County, and the cities of Alta, Bluffdale, Draper, Herriman, Holladay, Midvale, Murray, Riverton, South Jordan, and South Salt Lake

Salt Lake County Consortium

The Salt Lake County Consortium includes the Urban County, Cities of West Jordan, Sandy, Taylorsville, and West Valley.

The Salt Lake County Consolidated Plan (Consolidated Plan) provides a framework for addressing identified housing and community development needs within the Consolidated Plan area. One of the primary objectives of the Consolidated Plan is to bring about meaningful collaboration among service providers so that effective and coordinated strategies for addressing needs emerge. It is expected that this process will result in a more effective use of scarce public and private resources.

The Consolidated Plan includes a needs assessment, strategy to address those needs and an Action Plan to fund programs and projects that will meet some of the needs identified. The Action Plans of Salt Lake County, Sandy, Taylorsville, West Valley City, and West Jordan identify how approximately $6.4 million of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership Program, and Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) funds will be spent. Salt Lake County as the lead agency for the Urban County and the Consortium will disperse the funds to Urban County cities, and Consortium HOME program cities, respectively, and to service providers for projects identified in the One-Year Action Plan.

Housing and Community Development Needs

The fever pitched economic and population growth of the 1990s for Utah and Salt Lake County has slowed. The state's 2000 unemployment rate is expected to average 4.0 percent being slightly higher than 1999s 3.8 percent. Kelly Matthews, First Security's Bank chief economist, estimated that the employment growth in 2000 should hold stable at a moderate 2.5 percent, sales growth in many sectors of the economy will likely narrow.

The recent economic growth along the Wasatch Front has not been a balanced growth between income and expenditures. Family income levels have grown significantly slower than property values. It is estimated that since 1990 family income has grown only 25 percent while property values have appreciated seen at least 75 percent. The cost of living index in the housing category for the Salt Lake area has increased steadily for the last 10 years. A rating of 100 on this index means that housing costs in the area are average as measured against all other areas across the nation. In February 1998, the housing index peaked at 170.828, meaning that housing along the Wasatch Front was over 70 percent more expensive than comparable housing in other places and what the housing costs were in 1989.

For all rental units there is an average vacancy rate of 7.7 percent. But this figure hides the imbalance that exists in the housing market. In 1990, land costs were low, and housing in Utah was among the most affordable in the Nation. By 1995, there was a severe shortage of housing for all households no matter what their income was. Through the last half of the 1990s, there was an explosion of construction as developers tried to meet the needs that were created by the economic and population growth. For a variety of reasons the housing, single and multiple units, did not match the income of the population growth. An imbalance was created so that there are more housing units per household in 2000 than there were in 1990. However, there remains a severe lack of affordable housing for very low-income households and those with special needs.

The growth in the number of rental housing units and the overall housing market has helped decrease the demand for public housing assistance. Yet there are extensive waiting lists and many critical needs that are not being met. West Valley City Housing Authority and the Housing Authority of the County of Salt Lake have placed a high priority on resident initiatives and having the residents play a larger role in the management of public housing units.

The Consolidated Plan development process identified a critical shortage of transitional housing and very affordable rental housing units. In response to this need, Salt Lake County in collaboration with the Salt Lake County Council of Governments and the Long Range Planning Committee has put together an initiative to develop transitional housing developments throughout Salt Lake County.

Housing: The greatest unmet need is rental housing for the working poor, people with physical disabilities, and other special needs groups who lack financial resources.

Community Development: The greatest needs are more youth programs and facilities, more case management support for special needs populations, and capacity building for non-profit organizations. Neighborhood needs include more street improvements, infrastructure improvement, and more economic opportunities for low to moderate- income neighborhoods.

Salt Lake County, Urban County cities, and the Consortium cities have allocated CDBG and HOME funds to meet the needs identified and that will meet the annual objectives.

In 1998, Salt Lake County developed a moderate income-housing plan. This plan identified that there are 78,000 households who are paying or would have to pay more than 30 percent of their income for their housing. This plan also laid out an action plan to modify or add to current County zoning and other County codes, these changes will facilitate the development of more affordable housing and increase the housing choices for the residents of the County.

Affordable Housing Plan

Salt Lake County's Affordable Housing Plan addresses the need to eliminate barriers and encourage the development of more affordable housing units. The action items include the following:

• Salt Lake County will work to reduce, mitigate, or eliminate local regulatory barriers to moderate-income housing;
• Salt Lake County will encourage the preservation of existing moderate-income housing and the development of new moderate- income housing.

Each of the cities that are either part of the Urban County or part of the Consortium are required by State law to develop and implement an affordable housing plan and program for development of affordable housing. This law was meant to encourage the cities and counties to become proactive about eliminating barriers to the development of affordable housing, and to facilitate the development of new moderate-income housing.

In 1996, Salt Lake County completed its Analysis of Impediments and established an action plan, which addresses the identified needs and barriers that need to be overcome. Salt Lake County has placed an emphasis on:

1. Education: Salt Lake County has worked with Assist Inc., to develop a summary sheet of building code and Fair Housing requirements that is posted in the Office of Development Services where builders and developers get permits and requests for zoning changes and conditional use permits.
2. Annual Seminars: Each year Salt Lake County sponsors a seminar on Fair Housing and practical designs for accessibility needs.
3. Monitoring: Salt Lake County monitors on a regular basis housing projects funded with HOME funds for compliance with Fair Housing.
4. 1998 Moderate Income Affordable Housing Plan: The plan outlines specific actions that can be taken that will encourage the development and preservation of affordable housing for households at all income levels.

Salt Lake County is working with Salt Lake City-County Health Department to help reduce the lead based paint hazards that exist in housing throughout Salt Lake County. In Salt Lake County, excluding Salt Lake City, there are approximately 124,876 housing units built before 1978. Of these, approximately 84,123 are estimated to have some lead based paint. The Health Department received a grant from the Center of Disease Control to fund an education and testing program. Approximately three children a month are identified as having elevated levels of lead. Salt Lake County will use a portion of HOME and CDBG funds to expand the current housing rehabilitation program to more aggressively reduce the lead based paint hazards that exist.

Most of the service providers are located in Salt Lake City, YWCA, Travelers Aid Society, Salvation Army and others are also located in Salt Lake City. Housing development projects could occur anywhere in Salt Lake County. Salt Lake County's CDBG program targeted communities are Millcreek, Magna, Kearns, and White City.

Salt Lake County Division of Economic Development and Community Resources is the lead agency for the Urban County CDBG and Consortium HOME Programs. The cities of Sandy, Taylorsville, West Jordan and West Valley are CDBG entitlement communities and administer their own CDBG funds and receive an allocation of HOME funds to help improve or develop affordable housing.

Homeless, Special Needs and Affordable Housing