Ralph Becker,
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker has called for the building of 5,000 affordable housing units over the next five years.
“We saw a need to have a much more focused effort to address the gaps we’ve identified over time and to achieve our policies,” Becker tells AHF. “It’s also central to the livability agenda that I have because we want to be able to provide for all of our folks, our demographic needs, within the city.”
A city of 186,000 people, Salt Lake City has relatively few middle- and upper-income households and a high proportion of low-income households. Forty‐one percent of city households earn less than $35,000 per year, according to study conducted by BBC Research & Consulting.
In 2011, 54% of the renters were cost burdened (spending 30% or more of their income on housing), BBC reported.
To encourage affordable housing development, the city is offering incentives, including low-interest loans, to developers.
Becker is pleased with the early response to his initiative. “We’ve been very successful developer by developer and development by development of carving out portions of housing developments for affordable housing, including housing for the homeless population and people with particular needs,” he says.
Before going into politics, Becker was an attorney and a planner, a role that no doubt influences his work as mayor.
“One of the things that happens with those of us who are
trained and worked professionally in the planning world is we tend to look at
how pieces of communities fit together and integrate,” he says. “We also tend
to think longer term about what’s going on in the areas we are responsible for
planning. I certainly try to bring that to the job.”
