A joint Park City and Summit County committee of staff and councilmembers has been exploring establishing a housing authority to attract funding and help develop housing.
They’ve settled on two options: one countywide “umbrella” organization, or two separate city and county authorities that collaborate.
The councils want to meet again in November to get more information before choosing one of those options.
The main sticking point is one of the benefits housing authorities convey to renters, “housing choice vouchers” —the rental assistance program formerly known as Section 8— isn’t available anymore.
Summit County Economic Development and Housing Director Jeff Jones said housing choice vouchers aren’t available to new housing authorities because the federal government is moving away from public housing.
Vox reported last week that the Department of Housing and Urban Development is researching providing renters with cash instead of vouchers, which some landlords don’t accept.
The news gave councilmembers pause. Park City Councilmember Ryan Dickey said that meant any potential housing authority would need to get creative at pursuing other grants.
“That just seemed like the big pot of money, though, and so it seems to me like—really zeroing in on the benefits—they are a little bit skinny,” he said.
Dickey and others didn’t want to add another level of bureaucracy if it wouldn’t meet the community’s needs.
For November’s meeting, staff will likely prepare materials on how housing authorities can access HUD grants that are otherwise out of reach. And specialty and project-specific vouchers are available too.
The housing authority committee has interviewed 17 community stakeholders, from developers to school districts to nonprofits and Vail Resorts; 100% of them thought “a regional housing authority could offer something to their organization that is currently missing.”
Jones said the county’s school districts in particular feel like they’re being forced into becoming their own developers.
“Because there's not an organization that's set up for them to contribute in a way in which they can secure units for their own needs, for their employees,” Jones explained.
Still, councilmembers wondered about the feasibility of some form of a housing authority, and that discussion will happen at the next joint meeting, tentatively scheduled for Nov. 14.
