Affordable Housing

I am the chair of our local homeless committee for the state, and I do home visits for the SE District Health Dept. I am very directly aware of the effect of having very little affordable housing in our area (unfit ancient trailers should not be all that are available to our hard-working service industry employees, and even school teachers and nurses). I realize that I am not in your site visit area, however I don't see many other questions so here it goes: Grand County is working with the City of Moab and our local Housing Authority on a very detailed moderate income housing plan. We expect completion by Dec. '07. While our county is happy to entertain and awe the vast numbers of visitors the state sends our way via aggressive advertising, the jobs generated are extremely low-paying. Our second/recreational home market has driven up our housing costs and our workforce has nowhere to go. Now, we are not necessarily asking for state handouts to deal with this issue, but I foresee that some of the local solutions to this issue may not be available to us due to state law.

How amenable are you to making certain state laws changeable by counties who have very specific demographics, such as certain high percentages of non-residential vs. workforce tax payers, etc? For instance, letting counties who qualify decide whether to be disclosure counties, allow trailer park residents to have right of first refusal, and/or allowing deed restrictions on public housing. I am not an expert, but have been told that these things could help us encourage development of affordable housing, but are not allowed by state law. We don't want to change state law carte blanche, but giving individual counties some control would sure help out, and keep us from having to come to you for dollars for this on-going dilemma. Thank you.

Audrey Rowland Graham
Moab/Grand County Grand County Council, and Health Dept.


Thank you Audrey. Affordable housing has become a problem all over the state because of inflation in land, building materials, and government fees. There are some things that cities and counties can do right now to help. First, areas can be zoned for high density housing including stacked or multi-storied condominiums or rentals. Second, impact and other fees can be reduced or eliminated. Third, there are tax incentives like the low-income housing credit that can be utilized. Any one or a combination of these local options can reduce the cost of housing. In addition, there are communities that are doing some creative things with public/private partnerships.

Thanks again for your question. Hope all is well in Grand County.

Wayne Niederhauser
Utah State Senator, District 9


This problem has certainly hit Southern Utah. If anyone has an idea how to solve this problem using free market principles, I would like to hear from them. Please send me an E-Mail message.

Dennis Stowell
Utah State Senator, District 28