Community advocates continue call for affordable housing in SEG/SLC plan
Jul 3, 2024, 5:01 PM | Updated: 7:03 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Community advocates are continuing a call for affordable housing to be part of any plans to revitalize downtown, arguing that ticket fees that would go to Salt Lake City to help pay for more housing are not enough.
That was part of the newly proposed terms between Smith Entertainment Group and Salt Lake City, which was listed in an executive summary released Tuesday.
Crossroads Urban Center said they still want more guarantees from the city and SEG that any of the new housing developments will help those who they say have been priced out of the market.
“We need to do a better job of providing housing for everyone in our community, not just people who can afford the top floor of a skyscraper,” said Glenn Bailey, executive director of the Crossroads Urban Center.
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Bailey has openly called for 20% of any new housing built in the downtown zone to be affordable and deeply affordable housing, 10% of units for those making under $60,000 per year, and 10% for those making under $30,000 per year.
“The reason people use food pantries is because they’ve just paid the rent or they’ve just paid the utility bills, you know, and people are facing higher utility bills as well as higher rent. They’re getting priced out of the market,” Bailey said.
In the contract between SEG and Salt Lake City, there is some money planned for housing. According to the contract, $1 to $3 per ticket for any Delta Center event gets put into a fund to help the city pay for “family-sized and affordable housing and other public benefit initiatives as determined by the city.”
“It’s nice, but it’s not enough,” Bailey said, “and it’s coming from the people buying the tickets, not the business who’s being subsidized by our public dollars.”
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Salt Lake Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s office said a deeper developer contract where these types of negotiations are made is forthcoming.
“Mayor Mendenhall has always said she wants the city’s growth to benefit every resident and every neighborhood,” said her spokesman, Andrew Wittenberg, in a statement.
The mayor’s office sees the ticket fee fund for housing, known as the Community Benefit Fund, as a win for Salt Lake City.
“If approved, the Community Benefit Fund expands opportunities for affordable housing in areas where the City’s need is the greatest. This is a return on investment for the community that will also help to address one of the state’s greatest needs, and just one tangible example of how the sports, entertainment, culture, and convention district will create a ripple effect of opportunity and benefits for the entire region,” Wittenberg wrote in the statement.
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KSL TV reached out to SEG, but the group declined to comment. Bailey said he still wants some more “skin in the game” from the group.
“We still think that the city council should insist on that as a condition for allowing this deal to go through,” Bailey said.
He said he intends to make another public ask of the city.
“We really want to see a commitment that any housing that is developed in this district includes affordable housing for people who need it the most. That we could consider a success,” he said.
