Rental housing is 'out of reach'

Affordable housing in Utah — and across the country — is tough to find, according to a new report that paints a less-than-rosy picture for those struggling most to make ends meet.

"The low-income people don't have a damn chance. They just don't have a chance," said Tim Funk, housing project director for Crossroads Urban Center and a board member of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which released Tuesday's report.

"If you are a low-income person in Utah, you are in jeopardy," he said.

According to the study, the current fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Utah is $675. To afford the monthly rate, a household must earn $12.98 per hour — 252 percent of the current minimum wage.

Nationally, the housing wage is $15.78, placing Utah in 25th place, slightly lower than in years past.

"That's the nutshell, that rental housing remains unaffordable and out of reach for the average Utahn," said Claudia O'Grady, director of multiethnic development and chairwoman for the Utah Housing Coalition.

In Salt Lake, where a minimum two-year wait for housing assistance is not uncommon, an hourly wage of $13.87 is required to afford rent for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the report.

Summit County is the most expensive place to live in the state, with an average rent of $984 for a two-bedroom apartment. To afford that, according to the report, a person must make $18.92 per hour or work 3.7 full-time jobs at minimum wage.

To address the housing crisis, advocates on Tuesday listed several factors — expanded government housing assistance, additional building of affordable rental units and an increase of the $5.15-per-hour minimum wage — that all need to be present to be effective.

"All of the above," Funk said.

Salt Lake City's housing list for Section 8 vouchers — a monthly housing subsidy to low-income families — has been closed for two years after reaching a record 7,000 applicants, said Jill Riddle, Section 8 program manager for the Salt Lake City Housing Authority. At the current attrition rate, it could take up to seven years to reach every person on a list that large, she said.

"We witness at the Salt Lake City Housing Authority every day this gap that this report talks about," Riddle said.

In the past six months, the housing authority has removed 242 people from its waiting list, all of whom have waited more than two years for assistance. Twenty-one percent of those have an annual income of $5,000 or less, and 35 percent make between $5,000 and $10,000 annually.

None of the families, Riddle said, could afford the average rent of a unit in Salt Lake County — or anywhere in Utah — on their own.