City releases draft 2025–2029 HUD Consolidated Plan for public comment; priorities include housing stability, homelessness services and environmental cleanup

Salt Lake City staff presented a draft 2025–2029 HUD Consolidated Plan on Feb. 11 and outlined next steps in the required five-year plan and the first-year allocation schedule.

Nut graf: The draft identifies six overarching goals — housing, homeless services, transportation, community services, business and workforce development, and environmental remediation — and lists strategies for each goal. Staff said the plan is the product of more than a year of engagement, including 40-plus internal stakeholders, external stakeholder meetings, 13 community events and hundreds of survey responses.

Key points and priorities: - Housing: Strategies include tenant protections, expanded tenant-based rental assistance, home-rehabilitation and emergency-repair and seismic retrofit programs, incentives for mixed-income and deeply affordable development, and exploration of a community land trust. The plan specifically calls for prioritizing mixed-income development and preventing displacement. - Homeless services: Strategies include expanding rent-assistance programs, creating a relocation assistance fund, a displaced-tenant preference policy, legal-aid programs for eviction prevention, centralized data to coordinate providers, expanded mobile services, storage facilities and support for non-congregate housing and managed camping areas. - Transportation: Goals include improving transit and active-transportation options, ADA-compliant sidewalk and curb improvements, bus-stop shelters and route frequency, and school/park-area safety measures. - Community services: The plan calls for expanded, affordable childcare and out‑of‑school care programs, food-access initiatives, technology literacy centers and broadband/wifi access in public spaces. - Business and workforce development: Priorities include workforce training (especially in trades and apprenticeships), wraparound services (childcare, language training), small-business grants and simplified application processes and facade/ADA improvement programs. - Environmental remediation: Added per council request, the plan supports contamination testing and remediation on formerly industrial and dump sites, with funds to fill gaps left by other funding sources.

Process and timeline: - The draft consolidated plan (about 310 pages) will be posted for public comment starting March 13; staff will hold a 30-day comment period and extend it slightly to accommodate engagement. - The mayor’s funding recommendation for the annual allocations will be presented near the formal March 4 meeting. The council’s first funding briefing is scheduled for March 18, with final council adoption of the consolidated plan and the year‑one allocations planned for April 15. Staff said the HUD submission deadline is expected on or about May 15, pending federal scheduling.

Eligibility questions and flexibility: Councilors asked whether certain services — for example pet-related services that can be a barrier to shelter entry — could be funded. Staff said that pet care is specifically prohibited under CDBG regulations but that those providers pursued and received technical assistance and applied under eligible programs (ESG) and were recommended for funding by the allocation board.

Ending: Staff asked for council assistance in promoting the public-comment period and noted that the plan’s executive summary (pages 6–12) offers a concise overview of the full draft. The plan document and related maps will be updated and revisited periodically, and staff said they will report back with annual allocation recommendations.