The Faith and Advocacy Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness is asking candidates for Mayor and the City Council to answer five questions about homelessness and housing. Our goal is to share video and written responses to these questions in future emails. If you are interested in helping to ask candidates to respond to these questions then reach out to the director of FACE Hunger and Homelessness, Bill Tibbitts at bill@crossroadsurbancenter.org and let him know.
Our Five Questions:
Our Five Questions:
- Do you support the production of sufficient permanent supportive housing to meet the needs of people with physical and mental disabilities in Salt Lake City? Largely due to an infusion of federal funding, right now an unprecedented number of new housing units are being produced for people with serious mental or physical disabilities who have an extensive history of homelessness. It is important that we do not assume these units will be fully meet the need and that elected officials are willing to produce more units if they are necessary
- Would you commit to actively support efforts to build 200 units of child centered supportive housing in Salt Lake County during the next five years to fully meet the current need? The Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness determined a few years ago that our county needs 150 permanent supportive housing units for chronically homeless families with children. The only such units available right now are located in projects that were not designed for the needs of children and are primarily occupied by childless adults. It is imperative that children who have been homeless for a year or more have a home that meets their needs as the recover from the trauma of extended homelessness.
- Do you support the creation of a tenant relocation assistance program in Salt Lake City? Salt Lake City currently is in the process of finalizing an Anti-Displacement Plan to address gentrification and the displacement of low income individuals and families. One proposal in this plan is to develop a tenant relocation assistance program to help people whose homes are destroyed by new development. Helping families displaced by gentrification to avoid experiencing homelessness should be a priority for all city officials.
- Do you support the creation of a community benefit policy to prevent the loss of existing affordable housing units in Salt Lake City? Another goal in the Anti-Displacement Plan is to create a community benefit policy that would establish a formal process for preserving or replace affordable housing units when developers apply to a city for a zoning variance for a project that will destroy affordable housing units. Under current law, developers can destroy affordable units with no consequences.
- Do you support efforts to increase funding to address homelessness and housing instability? The Anti-Displacement Plan also highlights the need to increase funding available to address displacement and produce more affordable housing units. The high cost of building and preserving housing makes it impossible to adequately address housing affordability without adequate funding.
