Homelessness in families with children has been steadily increasing in Utah in recent years. In 2020 there were 5,520 person in families who experienced homelessness in Utah. By 2023 that number had increased to 7,033 people-- 3,748 of whom were children. Factors that contribute to family homelessness include:
Ideas for increasing the production of housing that is affordable to low income families with children
Ideas for improving access to existing services
- Low Incomes: Young parents are new to the workforce and often work in low wage jobs. 81,729 children in Utah were members of households that received nutrition assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in March of this year. The maximum income a family of hour can earn and qualify to receive SNAP benefits is $39,000. The USDA has estimated that only 79 percent of income eligible families with children in Utah participate in SNAP and so the total number of very low income families in Utah is higher than the number participating in SNAP.
- High Rents: There is a gap of at least $500 per month between what low-income families with children can afford to pay for rent and the cost of available apartments to rent. The maximum amount a family of four can earn and be income eligible for SNAP benefits is $3,250 per month. Experts say that the most a family in that situation can sustainably pay toward rent is 30 percent of income—or $975 per month. By contrast, HUD’s fair market rent for Salt Lake County, which is the maximum amount that can be paid using a housing voucher, is $1,504 for a two-bedroom apartment.
- Childcare costs: A parent with a young child cannot go to work without some kind of childcare arrangement to ensure the safety of that child. Unfortunately, the average childcare cost for a toddler in Utah is $750 per month, which is about 24 percent of the median income for a single mom in our state.
- Disability status for parent or child: Adults and children are disproportionately more likely to be homeless than the general population. Parents with disabilities may have less income than other adults and caring for a child with disabilities can be disruptive to a parent’s participation in the workforce.
- Domestic violence: Multiple studies show that a major share of mothers in families experiencing homelessness report that domestic violence was the immediate cause of their homelessness.
- Paperwork complexity of existing programs: There are a confusing array of government programs that help families with things like healthcare, purchasing food and paying rent. Completing the application for some programs can take more than an hour and the process of gathering supporting paperwork for multiple programs can be very time consuming in ways that conflict with work and other obligations.
Ideas for increasing the production of housing that is affordable to low income families with children
- Increase annual funding of the state low-income housing tax credit with a strong preference for these funds to be used on projects that include a specific percentage of affordable two and three-bedroom units.
- Increase annual funding of the state affordable housing loan fund with a strong preference for these funds to be used on projects that include a specific percentage of affordable two and three-bedroom units and/or increasing funding per unit for larger apartments.
- Create a funding option, or enhance an existing one, that can used by counties and/or cities to address housing instability with a special emphasis on the housing for low-income families with children.
- Using Medicaid funds to provide case management to homeless families to help parents and children to access appropriate physical and mental health services to enhance their ability to move into housing and stay in it.
- Using Medicaid funds to pay for up to six months of rent for homeless families and/or pregnant women.
Ideas for improving access to existing services
- Apply to the federal agencies that administer programs like Medicaid and SNAP for permission to streamline our on-line and paper applications so that they can be completed without help, in less time, by more families.
- Develop plan for sharing data and documents across programs that currently are unable to share information.
- Conduct regular "plain language" reviews of program documents and communications to ensure families do not lose benefits because they do not understand questions or requests for information.
