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SLC Mayor to push affordable housing plan to Council

Posted at 11:48 AM, Jun 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-25 16:28:33-04

SALT LAKE CITY — Mayor Jackie Bisksupski is pushing options to the Salt Lake City Council to build more affordable housing.

Appearing at an event where she designated it “Downtown Week,” the mayor continued to press for more affordable housing within the city limits. She said that since she came into office, about 1,500 units had been built and another 2,000 were expected within the next couple of years.

“How do we get the people who work here to be able to afford to live here?” Mayor Biskupski told FOX 13. “That’s what we’re going after.”

The mayor said she was working with the council on a plan that includes “all options” ranging from inclusionary zoning (requiring developers to carve out a portion of any development as “affordable”) to purchasing affordable units to incentives for developers to build affordable housing.

“When we partner with a contractor and say let us have some affordability within your project, that means some additional funds to the project,” she said. “What we’re finding is the developers are very open to it. They understand the crisis we’re in and they want to be helpful. We have to make sure we figure out the projects pencil out.”

The city council has declared an affordable housing crisis, with rents outpacing wages.