Cities or connunities should not be allowed to make it difficult to have affordable housing. I don't understand people oppose affordable housing saying they don't like the type of people who use it.

Don't all people deserve to have a place to live? If there is no affordable housing, how do our young people find a place to live?

Thank you for recognizing the long outdated issue that we've been having since the 1990s!! Don't talk... just do it!!

I would like to know their definition of "affordable". We got kicked out of a place cause the landlord wanted to charge more then he knew we could afford. It was a nice Christmas present from the landlord. So we had less then a month to find a decent place to live. Yet we made sure the man always received his rent every month. Shortly before then we tried to qualify for a home of our own and the back said no cause they felt we needed just over a few hundred more then our income already is. And that house was posted for low-income families. What's their definition of affordable? $170,000 or more. Sorry that's not affordable in my book.

If Utah really wants to address "affordability" then they need to address wages. Wages are artificually low here compared to other States, yet the Cost of Living keeps up with the nation.

that's supposed to say "the bank" not "the back" that's what happens when one types when just waking up. Sorry my goof.

30% of the cost of a new home is attributed to Gov mandates. Perhaps they could raise impact fees, that should help.

Don't be fooled that state lawmakers can help with this problem. Most of these people cannot think their way out of a paper bag. Contrary to what state lawmakers think, their I.Q. does not increase because they got themselves elected. They will enact legislation which will undoubtedly have unforseen, negative impacts to communities. These people will run all over local government officials who have vast experience in land use policies. I can't wait to see the fallout when dense, low income housing projects start popping up in the middle of pristine Bountiful, Fruit Heights, Sandy, and Alpine neighborhoods. Maybe it will be the beginning of the end of the Republican stranglehold on the legislature.

Cities will always balk when it comes to "affordable housing" as it usually means high density apartments or condos. Often these sort of places turn into blight shortly after completion. Developers like to be an "advocate" of low-income or high density housing as it's much more profitable to build cheap and pack deep.

As the housing market unwinds (crashes) here in Utah much more affordable housing will present itself to those looking. I imagine it will take about as long to approve and build high density as just waiting for the housing crash to finish.

Most cities & communities do not make it difficult to have affordable housing, they just zone places where apts./duplexes/fourplexes can be built. The owner/manager needs to make money on these housing units to provide for their families & the market should dictate, if your price is too high nobody will stay there, if your price is too low you will loose the housing units.

Also, just because you breathe air does not mean you deserve a place to live. This entitlement mentality of "I deserve this!" has really screwed-up some peoples work ethic.

Of course this is just my opinion!

What this means in Utah is to donate and give grants of tax funds to developers to build $200K-$300K condos to sell and they are not obligated to repay. Someone has been lobbying our legislators to get some of the surplus billion dollar tax funds available. There has never been a low income housing project in Utah, except for the illegals so they can be kept and maintained to keep Utah earnings and wages at substandard levels. Affordable housing means developer and builders riches at taxpayer expense. Housing that low income wage earning citizens can't afford and only illegals with state (taxpayer) subsitance is granted. Example? Park City housing for illegals and their illegal families to house the illegal work force in hiding them from federal ICE and deportation. Utah and affordable(?) housing is a fraudulent scam imposed on taxpayers.

With spiraling housing costs, we are heading to more and more multi-family situations. It used to be a joke that only the poor or the immigrants had multiple generations under one roof, but this is fast becoming the norm for working middle-class for whom the American Dream is dwindling in spite of college educations and decent jobs. Income just doesn't support a mortgage when prices are out of control and nobody gets ahead with rising rental costs. Important stay-at-home-moms (or dads) are becoming a rarity. It takes dual income to survive and sending kids to daycare is not the answer (of course the second income mostly goes to pay the childcare anyway). So, we'd better be prepared for more and more boomerang kids and rezoning of the areas which have forbidden multifamily housing - it's just not realistic any more to force snobbery and shun realistic answers to housing crises.

There is a Provo east bench neighborhood that apparently would rather a house go into foreclosure than that they allow a rental in the basement because of zoning (in a 7,000 square foot house). The neighbors report offenders who rent the basement because of Provo regulations - wake up Provo!

Anytime you hear the government say they want to help, you know what that means: taking from Peter to pay Paul. And congress gets the credit. It's the second-oldest business in the world, very much like the oldest.

I've lived in New Orleans & I've seen the Gov. affordable housing, believe me folks it ain't pretty & you really want to have no part of it. Free Gov. handouts usually & only attract the parasitic type of people, that care nothing about their surroundings.

Many of our legislators have ties to the real estate industry.

Do you think they are going to sponsor legislation that is pro-affordable housing?

Neither do I.

at buying a new home a couple of years ago. I stayed where I am. The problem? The houses are too big. The McMansions have overtaken the valley. There were no developments that would build the size of house that I wanted. I didn't want a 3-car garage. Too bad, that's what we have to build here. I don't need that many square feet. Too bad, we have to think of property values for the neighborhood. Frankly, I think this McMansion problem needs to be addressed. Many people don't need govt subsidized as much as they just need reasonably affordable housing in the form of appropriately sized and priced homes.

To Gov. Housing: "You can take the people out of the slums, but you can't take the slums out of the people."

It's about time Utah and its communities dealt with this issue head on.

For those of you who poo hoo the idea I say, "If you don't want to deal with the need for affordable housing then you have no choice but to deal with the exploding population in Utah." It's one or the other because you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Support getting affordable housing in place or support a head tax on families of 3 or more children. Do the math! It says it all.

Please don't do this. Bountiful is slowly turning into another Kearns as it is; we don't need slummy government-subsidized apartment complexes that attract people who don't share our values. We take pride in our homes in this community.

"I can't wait to see the fallout when dense, low income housing projects start popping up in the middle of pristine Bountiful, Fruit Heights, Sandy, and Alpine neighborhoods".

I live in Bountiful, I own my own house. I want low income housing in Bountiful. When I was starting I appreciated being able to afford a place to live and I hope the same for young people today, including my own kids.

To think otherwise is selfish. Although I am not Republican, I applaud the Republicans for this. Giving credit where credit is due.

I understand the concern that affordable housing brings undesirables into the neighborhood. And it does, in fact do that a lot of the time. However, believe it or not, there are families that include college educated parents with great kids who struggle to make ends meet with the housing prices rising so quickly. My family falls into that category. We work hard, and it's still tricky to find something affordable in a safe neighborhood with good schools. I for one, would appreciate some help in that department. We're not looking for a hand out, just something reasonably priced and not disgusting with meth addicts for neighbors!

By "Our Values" do you mean living so far outside your means that foreclosures are rampant throughout the entire valley? Or perhaps you mean judging others whose belief systems are based on something other than the word of "wisdumb". Last time I checked the late President of your Church stated that the spirit among worshipers who lived in some of the poorest nations on earth was far stronger than that found along the Wasatch Front. Get over yourself. Poor people are still "people" and now likely to be your neighbors. So, remember your obligation to "Love thy neighbor" as part of your "values" as that is the most important part of them.

Dave,

Did you mean that adding impact fees would help with affordable housing? The homeowner pays the impact fee so raising impact fees will directly raise the cost of the home. The only real way Gov can help is to lower requirements - setbacks, parks, lot size all of these requirements drive up the cost of the home.

You should live in Brigham City and surrounding areas

You can't have it both ways. Anything 'reasonably priced' will attract the meth addicts. It won't take long before they will soon be your neighbors again.

As previously stated, you can take the people out of the slums, but you can't take the slums out of the people. These slummy people will find there way back there. You should spend your time improving your situation (get yourself out of the slums), not trying to find something low cost that will only attract the type of neighbors you say you don't want (take the slums out of the people).

I do feel for you, and I am in a similar situation. I have found that I can rent for much less than buying, and I have found a great place to rent at a good price, and I will wait here until the price of housing drops back down to be in line with wages. We have experienced 12 years of appreciation over the last 3 years. As also previously stated, it will be better/faster to wait for the prices to fall back in line than to enact these government solutions that will only worsen the situation.

The people who need affordable housing (whether provided through government assistance or not) include our own parents and grandparents who have aged out of their homes, our sisters who are fleeing an abusive relationship, our children and neices/nephews who are just getting out of college and need a place to live, and ourselves when our employer downsizes. A vibrant and healthy community is one that accomodates all these people. Communites must be progressive in adjusting their General Plans to accomodate affordable housing througout their community (no enclaves or ghettos)!

Compare the "not in my back yard" sentiment in many planning and zoning meetings with "I will never tell another person working for a living that he or she is not worthy of living in the public view."

In a free market those buying homes dictate where and what kind of homes will be built. Zoning, minimum lot and house sizes, impact fees, exactions, etc., distort the free market by excluding many buyers from entire communities and neighborhoods.

To fix the problem the government intervenes and subsidizes rent and mortgage loans for low and moderate income families in various housing projects. The poor reputation of those government housing projects reinforces the "not in my back yard" sentiment making for more exclusionary zoning and increases the need for subsidized housing.

The problem is that there is too much government intervention in the housing market. Let the free market work and it will solve the problem. If you want to know how much government intervention drives up the price of housing compare the cost of housing in Kentucky zip codes 40006, 40033, 40014 with those where you live. Is the price you are paying worth it?

There are plenty of affordable places to live right now. Quite a few new communities are offering very decent homes starting in the low $140s in many attractive neighborhoods. Maybe the issue isn't so much how affordable the home is, but how affordable your lifestyle is. Many people will find a couple tweaks in their budget will make all the difference in the home you can afford. Before the government tries to put a band-aid over this issue, maybe it would be best to get to the root of the problem by offering more free or low cost financial services to everyone in every situation. It is a service that can greatly help the "good" people who everyone would love as neighbors, but can't seem to find a way on their own. It also weeds out the people nobody wants for a neighbor because as soon as they realize they need to take responsibility for their actions, they give up and find someone else to take the blame for them or come up with another excuse as to why they are in the situation they are in.
But what do I know? I'm not involved in politics ;)

There is plenty of affordable housing around Utah. The real problem is that everyone wants more than they can afford. Most people think that they should be able to live in a huge home and eat out every meal while driving alone in their oversized SUV. They also do not want to work on any holidays, overtime, or evenings. "We Believe" we are too good to live in a modest home. In many countries people are happy living in bamboo huts along the river that gets flooded out several times a year. We should aprecieate what we have and not look for handouts.

Another fine example of the "republican legislature" not acting very republican. Stop with the government intervention into every aspect of our lives! WE WANT FREEDOM NOT REGULATION!

I agree with "I was looking". The sizes of homes are ridiculous these days. It seems everyone wants to live "like a Rock Star". We have the yearly Parade of Homes to make us all feel like that's the kind of house we need. I stopped going to those a long time ago, because it just made me covet what I couldn't have. We can also thank the TV show that used to gut and re-do a house. Now they tear it completely down, and make a monster home for a family that can't afford the taxes on it. Each kid does not need their own 20 x 20 foot bedroom. I stopped watching that show a long time ago too. I was raised in a home with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom for 6 people. I survived!

I am retired and struggling to get by. In my day there wasn't any choices so to speak about attaining a formal education. There were no loans available, grants or other help recieving this education that is so needed today. Lord knows my parents sure didn't have the means to pay for it. The problem a lot of us retirees have now is not enough income or savings to pay for todays costs. A lot of us had to take whatever job we could find and then that just did pay the bills, leaving us with not much left over if any most of our lives. What I'm trying to say is Utah needs more senior living complexes so that we can live with people our own age, and hopefully have some kind of standard of living(not fancy) to live out our existence. This needs to be affordable to most of us who try to live off from our social secuity, as our only income.

Lawmakers considering affordable housing?
Isn't that giving assistance?
And isn't giving assistance SOCIALISM?!!!
What is this liberal world coming to?

I am in a similar situation as "How about us?" That sounds good to me. Affordable senior complexes.

Entitlement is the problem. Working people who think God entitles them to belittle those who are working hard but still can't pay for SAFE, CLEAN housing because of illness, old age, economic downturns, disability, mental health issues (Utah) or even severe compounding of normal challenges like being a child in a bad neighborhood because of "free trade=righteousness". More like "free trade only = "The Jungle" unchecked by government". Government is instituted by God and you are that government so do something! It is violence against the disadvantaged to have monetary geographies where even our churches and schools are skewed. We need equivalent energy to reclaim the foothills or we'll never be a "there were no poor among them..."society. Thinking the poor are lazy is not Christian as I recall hearing in the Book of Mormon. The poor are entitled to basic necesities (widows, fatherless, poor...) Even sharing your home doesn't solve everything.

When will we wake up and quit looking for government to solve our problems?

Can anyone think of a single government program that actually helped anyone?

Government should get out of the business of solving everyone's problems.

Citizens need to take responsibliity for their lives.

A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.

Don't remember who said it, but it is true.

As carpet cleaners we see what renters do to their rentals....they trash them... cigarette burns, holes knocked in the walls and doors, stains everywhere....people don't appreciate what they don't work for (and a lot of people don't take care of what they DO work for.) So great, the taxpayers give decent housing to low income families and they will just destroy them. I would say maybe 1 out of 20 renmters leave a rental in decent condition. We clean hundreds of them every year, so we know. We have a new low income apartment complex down the street and it is amazing what the renters are doing to it already. America..the welfare state of ingratitude.

We got our then-decade-old home 4 decades ago at $25k. Our same home's valuation, by inflation, is 10 times more now: $250k. Housing's hugely-higher inflation is the largest factor overheating all inflation overall (up "just" 6-fold in 4 decades). Our home taxes inflated 3-fold, while our home and insurance inflated tenfold. Manipulated housing scarcity (plus bigger homes on average) kited up housing costs far above usable assets, worsening any later drops. Yet wages lag inflation: Deseret News (DN) 8/31/07.

Over-inflated homes hurt growing families needing buyable first housing near schools. Later, when 2-bedroom condos won't handle growing young families, far higher costs of even modest home mortgages balloon their burden, plus commensurate jumps in home insurance, utilities, taxes, etc.

Utah's excessive mortgage fraud is partly due to Utah's non-disclosure fiasco, whereby selling prices of homes are known only to the privileged (or if recent, to Zillow, etc.). Those driving up housing costs (thus all inflation, making us less competitive worldwide) benefit few but injure majorities, especially young families ultimately supporting us retirees. We conveniently forget that.

oh shawn .. thank you .. entitlement is the ANSWER in this state ... if you dont earn it , you dont get it ,, if you dont have it .. you dont get it ..
the reports in this state show property is maintained at about $14.00/hr of wage to have a modest property (whatever modest means) .. BUT the state average wage is $7.00 .... a little short there on the numbers to have a house or property on your current wage ...
oh wait .. the good members of this state know what to do ... they get the unaffordable house they cant afford move in and then declare bankruptcy
law makers cant make housing afforable .. the public meetings are a scam .. what really matters is and are the meetings that take place with lobbyist and back door politics orchestrating eminent domain
greed always takes its place at the head of the line
and dont forget the other committee mtg on property tax .. even if you have it .. they will figure out a way to tax you out of it
good luck ..

I find it funny that someone addresses the issue of multiple generations under one roof. To be honest, I think it a very wise way to life. While the grandparents take care of the small children, the older ones go to school, the Parents then have time to go to work and help support those who are living in the home. Say you have two cousins (20's), you, your wife, three kids, and two grandparents living in one home. This means that there are five people in one home that are working and supporting the five that are unable to work. Rent/mortgage, food, and daycare all become less of a concern when split five ways.

We need simple construction on small lots to bring hope to Utah families.
I have found myself with the shoe now on the other foot. Our family lost 15 thousand a year through a company buy out. We have gone from home ownership to the unstable rental market. We long to buy a home again, but cannot. A walk through IKEA shows that even a small home would be possible for many families.
Let's do the right thing and allow low income housing. I am more than willing to live within ear shot of train whistles and roaring freeway traffic. Let's do the right thing. Allow zoning for smaller homes.

P.S.

I am not suggesting govt. subsidy.

I am suggesting fresh new, or is that old thinking. (Post WWII wisdom.)

But, I realize old ideas made new again do not appeal to many.