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Show THE HOUSING CRISIS: NATIONAL AND LOCAL PERSPECTIVES League of Women Voters US designated housing as one of its three program priorities this year and ran an excellent article on the housing crisis in American in the August VOTER as part of a four-part series on Unmet Needs. We have a housing crisis in Salt Lake, although it differs in some aspects from the national situation. Homelessness is part of our problem, too, and our other housing problems interrelate to current interests of the Salt Lake League, including taxation, economic development, education and child care. Come to the briefing on the housing crisis on Wednesday, February 15th at 12:15 p.m. at St. Mark's Cathedral (231 East 100 South) and learn more about the national crisis and exactly how our local situation differs. It will be given by Carl lnoway, Dean of the University of Utah Graduate School of Architecture, who will reserve time for your questions. Before you come, please read the NATIONAL VOTER and local housing information sent to you. Unit meetings during February will discuss these papers. -- Laura Landikusic CITY LAYS THE FOUNDATION FOR NEW HOUSING POLICY More than 200 people shut themselves into two conference rooms Wednesday to start fashioning what Salt Lake City officials hope will become a comprehensive policy for improving housing and neighborhoods. City officials, businessmen, landowners and neighborhood residents met for about eight hours at the Red Lion Hotel, 255 S. West Temple, for the Salt Lake City Housing Conference to discuss ways to restore vitality to neighborhoods, turn around an anemic housing market and preserve aging homes in the city. The conference also drew officials from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and San Franciscan Helen Sause, president of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. Mayor Palmer DePaulis said the conference marks the start of a year-long initiative to enact policies and ordinances to promote better housing in the city. The next step will be to compile issues raised at the conference and release a report containing potential action the city could take. The report will be issued within 90 days, said Councilman Tom Godfrey. Some items likely to be addressed in the report include: -- The adoption of a "conservation code" to supplant the uniform building code city officials used when inspecting older homes. While both codes outline requirements for protecting the health and safety of Salt Lake Voter - 2 - nomeowners and tenants, the conservation code could contain less stringent requirements than the uniform building code, which contains requirements for new homes. -- Bettering communication between the city and builders, landlords and homeowners on programs and financial help available for improving homes and apartment buildings. People at the conference raised the issue in all four workshops. -- Reworking the city's zoning ordinance to increase protection of residential areas from encroachment by businesses while loosening requirements on zoning variances to encourage building new housing. -- Developing ways to encourage the construction of affordable housing for people on low and moderate incomes. "The overall strategy is pretty simple. We have to save what we have and build as much new housing stock of the kind we need," said Carl Inoway , Dean of the University of Utah Graduate School of Architecture. Mr. lnoway said the city has a housing crisis similar to other U.S. cities, but work now can solve Salt lake City's problems before they become as intractable as major urban centers such as Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. He estimated that the city has a vacancy rate of 1O percent to 15 percent while 50 percent of the people who live in housing on public assistance have jobs. Another large percentage of people in public housing are the aged poor. Empty homes and apartments can't be filled by people in those categories because they can't afford to pay rent or house payments. And landowners can't lower ren!s because it would drive them out of business, Mr. lnoway said. (Salt Lake Tribune - Jan. 26, 1989) WANTED!!! TV SCRIPT WRITERS ANYONE WHO WISHES TO BE PART OF A LARGE, ACTIVE, INVOLVED COMMITTEE TO BRAINSTORM AND WRITE TWO- TO THREE-MINUTE TV INTERVIEW/EDUCATION SCRIPTS, PLEASE CALL SHARON WALKINGTON (583-2284 home, 582584 7 ext. 6529 office) B E F O R E FEBRUARY 17, 1989. February 1989 |
