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Show SUMMARY OF REPORT . AND RECOMMENDATION ON UTAH HOUSING Ed's Note: This summary was wiitten by the Housing Development Devel-opment Division Dept. of Com-unity Com-unity Affairs. We do not affirm or deny the validity of the report. re-port. The complete book is quite lengthy. Anyone wishing to read the book in total is welcome to the use of the News office copy. Housing is fundamental to a decent quality of life. In Utah, however, housing, particularly fcr those with incomes of less than the national median ($9,200) is in a crisis condition, census data reveals a shortage of 53,000 dwelling units; and over 50 percent of existing housing is older than 24 years and deteriorating de-teriorating rapidly, with 15,000 homes lacking basic heating plumbing and water facilities or having major structural defects. de-fects. Why ha9 this condition become acute? Simply put, construction of new homes has failed to keep pace with housing stock losses and population growth (33,000 units were dropped from the .housing inventory while 83,346 were built .during the 1960-70 decade) . Rural housing units declined de-clined by 8 percent vs. a population popu-lation decrease of only 2.1 percent per-cent in the same period. Projected Project-ed population gains are even more alarming, since Utah mar riage and birth rates far exceed the national average. This housing crisis afreets not only the 122,000 poor (below poverty level) but 97.000 households house-holds with annual incomes of leis than $8,000. Over one third pay more than 25 of their income in-come fcr rent and yet vacancies are almost nonexistent for units under $150 per month. Who are the housing disadvantaged? disad-vantaged? Over half of all eli- gible welfare recipients are children; over 21 percent are eldery or disabled; 23 percent are mothers, and less than five percent employable adults. More than 75 percent cf Utah's poor are white; in fact, there probably prob-ably isn't a family line that does not have a relative among those victims of an unstable or tragic marriage, a disablement of the breadwinner, or the decline of the farm or homestead. Utah is the 49th state to take advantage of federal housing assistance. as-sistance. Since enabling legislation legis-lation was passed in 1969, only five housing authorities have received federal housing allocations, alloca-tions, rating Utah last in the nation. Housing production demands competent staff expertise. The only source has been the FHA FmHA which are equipped to handle only market-rate mortgage mort-gage insuring. The Housing Development Division Di-vision Division cf the Department Depart-ment of Community Affairs was created by Executive order and lacks the legislative authority and staff capacity to function effectively. Thirty states responded to the demand for sovereign responsibility responsi-bility and created statewide housing development organizations, organiza-tions, among them Idaho, Colo- rado, South Dakota, Maine, Alaska (states similar in geography, geo-graphy, population density, etc.) These agencies assist local com-munites com-munites in develcping low and moderate income housing and take advantage of federal funding. fund-ing. Their capacity to respond to federal funding has been rewarded re-warded by becoming a pass-through pass-through agency for 26 percent of federal subsidy allocations or 150,000 homes! New federalism and revenue sharing presages an even greater role for state involvement, if they are organized organ-ized to meet feederal criteria. We are recommending that the legislature authorize a Utah Housing Administration and a statewide network of seven regional reg-ional housing authorities which can respond to local community requests and operate across all federal .state and local housing programs with efficiency and economy of scale. Further, while federal subsidy funding is curtailed, cur-tailed, request appropriation for one-time demonstration programs pro-grams which will reflect legislative legis-lative intent to assist Utah's disadvantaged citizens with a technically qualifed housing organization or-ganization network, pending resumption re-sumption of federal subsdies in 1974. |