Renting in Utah is not affordable for many

SALT LAKE CITY — For Avery Christiaens and her husband and young son, finding a suitable and affordable place to live took more than a year.

Their home was her parents' basement because apartments were just too expensive.

"Before we even moved out, all our money was going to just paying bills and buying food, let alone paying rent," said Christiaens, 22, of West Jordan. "The struggle was finding something that was safe (for my son) and affordable."

Apparently, they are not alone. Utah renters are being pushed past the brink of affordability, according to local housing advocates.

About 40 percent of renters are unable to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent, Tara Rollins, executive director of the Utah Housing Coalition, said Wednesday during a news conference.

"The housing wage in Utah is $14.77 per hour," Rollins said. "That is (the wage necessary) to afford a modest two-bedroom unit at fair market rent" of $768.

The 2010 Out of Reach report, prepared by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, based in Washington, D.C., analyzes the relationship between rental housing costs and the minimum wage. Affordable rents represent the generally accepted standard of spending not more than 30 percent of gross income on gross housing costs.

In Utah, the estimated average wage is $11.55, meaning workers earning that wage have to work 51 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment, Rollins said. An affordable rent for an average-wage renter should be $601 — creating a gap of $167 in Utah, she said.

Minimum-wage workers earning $7.25 per hour must work 81 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom unit. An affordable rent for a minimum-wage renter should be $505 — a gap of $391.

"An extremely low-income household earning $20,207 can afford a monthly rent of no more than $505, while the fair market rent for a two-bedroom unit is $768," Rollins said. "A person living on Social Security in Utah receives $673 a month. That means they should not be paying more than $202 a month for rent and utilities."

The necessary housing wage in Utah ranges from $16.08 per hour in Salt Lake City to $20.37 in Summit County to $14.40 in Ogden-Clearfield area, according to a Utah coalition news release.

An area housing advocate said a combination of factors have converged to create a near "perfect storm" of challenges for people seeking affordable shelter.

"Families are finding it more and more difficult to afford rent. … They are increasingly losing jobs or finding themselves unemployed longer than we've seen in the past," Sonya Martinez, advocate with the Salt Lake Area Community Action Program, told the Deseret News.