Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Housing Strategy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
CRA proposes FY27 housing priorities to push deeper affordability and geographic spread
Summary
CRA staff proposed keeping core priorities (deeply affordable units, family units, wealth-building, neighborhood services) and shifting the fifth priority to 'expanding affordable housing availability' to incentivize projects in census tracts with limited deed-restricted affordable housing; staff also proposed raising the HDLP threshold to 20% for family-sized or deeply affordable units.
CRA staff on March 10 presented a proposed FY27 housing funding strategy that keeps the agency’s five core priorities largely intact — deeply affordable housing, family-sized units with child amenities, wealth-building opportunities, neighborhood services and commercial spaces — but recommends replacing a prior ‘‘expanding opportunity’’ emphasis with a clearer aim to ‘‘expand affordable housing availability’’ in neighborhoods that currently lack deed-restricted LIHTC units.
Staff showed maps of deed-restricted affordable housing concentration and asked the board to consider policy tools to incentivize construction in under-served census block groups. Staff also proposed raising the HDLP threshold: qualifying HDLP applications would need 20% of units as either deeply affordable (≤30% AMI) or family-sized (three+ bedrooms with child amenities), up from the prior 10% requirement.
Board members supported the goal of broader geographic distribution but repeatedly raised trade-offs: developing fewer units in higher-cost neighborhoods costs more per unit, and many projects rely on state LIHTC rules that favor maximum affordable-unit counts. Members asked staff to explore rubric changes, targeted funding pots, and coordination with the Utah Housing Corporation’s QAP to encourage projects in higher-opportunity areas and to ensure mixed-income outcomes where appropriate.
Staff said next steps include returning in April for formal adoption of priorities and bringing projected FY27 housing fund balances and proposed allocations as part of the May budget presentation.
