Midvale is helping build 89 new affordable homes called East 72

Housing Connect is building 89 homes for families on East 72.

middle valley • On paper, the public housing project, officially renamed East 72 Thursday, will cost $25 million and build 89 upgraded homes in Midvale for some of Salt Lake County’s most affordable housing.

But the demolition and replacement of the 12 dilapidated semi-detached houses formerly known as Sunset Gardens at 380 E. 7200 South with a new three-story apartment complex also means something more profound: a new sense of security and stability for the 89 families who make it up could be low-income people, the elderly, the disabled or persistent homelessness.

Officials at the county’s housing authority, known as Housing Connect, broke ground Thursday under beautiful fall skies on East 72, which will add 65 units to a housing market all crying out for more affordable housing.

It is part of a multi-year process to revitalize portions of the county housing authority’s portfolio of more than 1,000 units after years of delayed maintenance.

The rental housing will go to those earning half or less of the region’s prevailing wages, including some families with no income. Five apartments each will be provided for residents with disabilities, homeless people and people escaping domestic violence. Ten units will be fully accessible to people with physical disabilities.

Midvale mayor says his city is ‘doing the right thing’

There is no doubt that East 72 will help residents of Midvale, said first-term mayor Marcus Stevenson, noting that the poverty rate in his suburban city is almost double that of the county as a whole.

But Midvale’s moral and financial support for the housing project is also a matter of “doing the right thing,” the mayor said, for the community as a whole.

“Unfortunately,” Stevenson said, “I talk to other cities a lot in my time as mayor, and it’s often talked about that either a community has done everything it could, or its residents really don’t care, at all.” to do something to help those in need.

“Our city is incredibly supportive of this project,” he said, “and we’re really excited to have it here.”

Janice Kimball, CEO of Housing Connect, noted in a written statement that public housing across the country has been underfunded for years, leaving a multibillion-dollar backlog of building repairs.

Under a demonstration rental assistance program called RAD, run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development since 2012, Housing Connect and similar groups are able to access capital for modernization by continuously converting the properties they manage into longer-term ones. Coupon-based contracts with HUD, under what is known as Section 8.

As part of the same program, in July Housing Connect announced a $76 million overhaul of two other public housing developments, the County High Rise and the New City Plaza, located near 1960 South 200 East, east of the Salt Government Center Lake County.

Social housing is not easy to build

East 72 is also an example of how difficult and complicated it is to finance and implement new subsidized housing projects today – in Utah and across the country.

Funding for the development comes from a number of sources, including federal low-income tax credits; Funding from Zions Bank and a consortium of lenders known as Rocky Mountain Community Reinvestment Corp.; the state Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund; and Midvale and Salt Lake counties.

David Damschen, president and CEO of the nonprofit Utah Housing Corp., which helps fund affordable housing, said that in today’s regional housing glut, “projects like this often get gobbled up by developers.”

Of the thousands of new homes now being built on the Wasatch front, Damschen said “most of it is market price and increasingly unattainable for so many.”

“I’m so inspired,” he said to an audience gathered just off 7200 South for the East 72 groundbreaking, “by people dedicated to this mission of bringing safety, stability to our neighbors and their families and to provide security.

“Projects like this,” said Damschen, “are so very, very important.”