AFFORDABLE HOUSING
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"We need to get away from this neoliberal, market-based approach [to affordable housing]. It’s really corporate socialism, where we keep dumping millions of dollars into the pockets of developers in trade for a few units of affordable housing. The solution in most of the rest of the world is nonmarket housing. The city ought to be using its resources, its borrowing power to build mixed-income housing where people of all different income levels can live together, and then they pay according to their ability to pay. It’s absolutely time we do this." — Rocky Anderson
AS MAYOR, ROCKY GAVE PREFERENCE TO CITY CONTRACTORS WHO PAIN A LIVING WAGE. UTAH LEGISLATURE THEN PROHIBITED SUCH A PREFERENCE.
". . . Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson proposed a living-wage ordinance — one that would allow the city to give preference to contractors when they paid above the minimum wage. The Legislature shot down that proposal, arguing that various minimum wages in different communities and living-wage policies would harm businesses."
"In the past seven years, HAND has utilized nearly $30 million from a variety of local and federal sources to make available nearly 2000 units of affordable housing and over 350 units of market-rate housing. The projects HAND [SLC Division of Housing and Neighborhood Development] has completed include. . . transitional housing for homeless veterans. . .the Jefferson Apartments, which provide low-income housing . . . and Sunrise Apartments, a 100-unit housing development for chronically homeless people. . . In recognition of her years of brilliant, dedicated service and successes [in providing affordable housing], [SLC's Director of Housing and Neighborhood Development] LuAnn Clark received the Local Government Service Award from NeighborWorks America." - Rocky Anderson, 2007 State of the City Address
"[H]ousing advocates are joining the mayor's office in criticizing how the [Council's] policy addresses affordable housing in Salt Lake City. . . . Anderson's office maintains the plan could be detrimental to affordable housing projects in Salt Lake City. The city only receives about 10 applications for housing loans each year. Because the number is so low, Anderson's office thinks each request should be weighed on its individual merits and not precluded because it is in a certain census tract."
“We’re just going to have to tell developers ‘you can not come into our community and destroy affordable housing displacing people without providing adequate replacement.’ And I would say what’s adequate is providing more than what’s being destroyed—according to some formula that we can develop. But we’ve always got to be making progress, we’ve always got to be taking advantage of any opportunities to provide greater affordability in terms of housing in Salt Lake City.”
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"The mayor and city council have a solemn duty to be responsible stewards of our neighborhoods and to achieve, through careful, innovative planning and execution: (1) sufficient mixed-income affordable — including “deeply affordable” — housing, with abundant open spaces, as is achieved in many nations around the world with nonmarket housing; (2) a standard of design excellence for a built environment we can all enjoy and of which we can all be proud; and (3) the preservation of the character of our diverse neighborhoods in all areas of our city."
"At the press event, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson spoke about the need for affordable housing, and HUD State Coordinator Julie Fagan highlighted the positive impact that the voucher program would have on the community."
" 'This is going to be remembered in history as a real turning point for how we work with those who are chronically homeless,' said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson."
"[H]ousing authority officials were joined last week by Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon at a press conference announcing the multi-agency plan to save housing for the 90 families [from being evicted from their homes in the face of federal cutbacks to Section 8 housing]."
"[T]hrough our housing rehabilitation program, the outstanding staff in Housing and Neighborhood Development, led so ably by LuAnn Clark, completed the renovation of 155 homes throughout the city, improving their energy efficiency and water conservation, as well as the neighborhoods in which they are located."
" 'We used to have rail lines running through here,' Mayor Anderson said, 'and it served as an effective barrier between the east and west sides of our city. This is now stunning open space.' The park is a beautiful amenity for this revitalized area and is adjacent to The Gateway apartment and commercial complex. The 392 Gateway apartments were home to members of the news media who covered the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, but today are an important new affordable housing resource for Salt Lake City."
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'Rocky has a plan to cap property taxes, increase green space and green energy and generate truly affordable housing. He has alternatives to raids on the homeless. He’s more a political activist than politician, more a humanitarian than bureaucrat, and more a problem solver than grandstander. Maybe he’ll even figure a way to re-curb our walkways and fill all those holes." - Calvin Jolley, Salt Lake Tribune
". . . Mayor Rocky Anderson drove a backhoe during the groundbreaking ceremony for Library Square Condominiums, an affordable housing complex with 29 units, of which six are designated for low-income buyers. . . 'I do think that there has been a downward trend in terms of the affordable housing from the ’70s up until recently,' Anderson says. '[But] we’ve been focusing very aggressively on adding components of affordable housing in just about everything we support, or in every project in which we participate.' "
"Thanks to the faith of Mayor Rocky Anderson and the City Council, the dream for upgrading the neighborhood along the light rail line is being realized."
"When Mayor Rocky Anderson stood up Friday and paid for his lunch with a speech, suggesting, 'This is going to be viewed in history as a turning point for the homeless,' Nuel Harris felt the mayor was speaking specifically about him."
"Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's recommendations for giving city money to nonprofit groups that provide services such as low-income housing and after-school programs have left some grumbling and others cheering."
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