In the past few months, the COVID-19 outbreak slowed down or halted just about all activity around the Wasatch Back. But the Mountainlands Community Housing Trust has been busier than ever, according to its Executive Director.
Scott Loomis told KPCW that he and five other staffers at Mountainlands have been working out of their homes for 11 weeks. He said he’s not sure when they will return to their offices.
But their projects are continuing—including 12 single-family homes, being built under their Self-Help program at Silver Creek Village. They plan to start six more residences this summer.
The work is affected by coronavirus restrictions, complete with masks and sanitizers.
“There’s quite a bit of activity. We’re very fortunate the COVID virus slowed down marginally but not significantly. So things are—we’ve got some different roles with our Self Help. We can’t have volunteers out there. We’re having trades do a little bit more of the work. But things are continuing pretty much as normal.”
Also in Silver Creek Village, the Housing Trust has a 32-condo project, with for-sale units, that began late last year and is due to finish up in September. They plan to start a second phase, also with 32 units.
“We’ve just gotten bids, and we’re ready to start on the second building, subject to finalizing our financing, and making a decision to pull the trigger. Again, these are for-sale to the work force, so we’re kinda waiting to see if people are coming back to work, and if they’re able to buy because we’ve got reservations for 23 of the 32 units in the first building that’s ready in September, and about 11 or 12 on the second building that hasn’t even started yet. And a lot of those people aren’t back to work yet, but we suspect they will be soon.”
He had details on the scale and prices for the units.
“They’re one, two and three bedrooms. The first building is all two bedrooms, and those are about 900 square feet. We have one bedrooms in the second building, which are about 650 square feet. And then the three bedrooms, which will, again, be in the second building, about 1150 square feet. And there’s two different price ranges. One’s at 60 percent of the median income and the other’s at 80 percent of the median income. So the one-bedroom’s range from about $160,000 to less than $200,000—the two bedrooms, $200,000 to about $255,000, and the three bedrooms, I think, $246,000 to about $299,000”
He added they are also finishing up the financing for 40 apartments in Silver Creek Village, and hope to begin those this summer.
In other locations, the Housing Trust has 21 lots in Francis where the infrastructure is being completed. Those are Self Help projects, and Loomis said they will recruit applicants toward the end of the summer.
And a 49-unit subdivision in Heber, with duplexes and townhomes, will be available for sale to essential workers. They plan to start work this summer on 12 of the units.
Mountainlands is also mindful of residents in affordable housing who are facing pressures over rent or utilities after the COVID lockdowns. Loomis said there are 600 units in Summit County designated for restricted incomes.
“They were formerly Low-Income Housing Tax Credit units. There’s a federal moratorium on evictions that goes through the end of July. And even then, the owners have to give 30 days notice. So people will not be evicted for non-payment, at least until the end of August. They can be evicted if they breach the lease and cause a disturbance, or other things that affect the neighbors.”
They work with the Christian Center, or Park City Community Foundation. But the Housing Trust is also undertaking its own efforts to help.
“And a lot of our properties in Summit County, 138 of 182 in Summit County, the properties have what’s called rental assistance, where USDA Rural Development federal government pays, subsidizes the rent. And when somebody lost their job, all they had to do was come in and re-certify. Normally that would take a month, but they allowed us to do it right away. For whatever reason, a number of people didn’t do that. So we’ve been literally knocking on doors and trying to find out what the story was, and encouraging them to get in there and adjust that rent. So if they don’t have a job, they don’t pay anything, and actually they get a check from the government to pay their utilities.”
Scott Loomis, Executive Director for the Mountainlands Community Housing Trust.
