The Summit County Housing Authority unanimously voted to give Mountainlands Community Housing Trust a one-time $25,000 grant Monday.
The purpose is to create a single, online application for prospective Wasatch Back renters. That’s as opposed to filling out dozens of paper applications for different affordable housing developments — only to sit on those waitlists for years.
Jason Glidden, Mountainlands’ executive director, hopes that fewer affordable units sit vacant if renters only have to apply once and their information remains in the nonprofit’s system.
“My vacancy is sitting at 3%, 4% and the biggest reason for that is because it takes us three to four weeks to qualify the next person coming in,” he said Monday.
Mountainlands is working with Park City technology professional Will Seggos to build the digital backbone of the idea.
What is digital identity?
Seggos is also working at the state level to create what he and others in the field call a “digital wallet” for Utahns. The initiative’s official name is “state-endorsed digital identity,” or SEDI.
Residents would be able to share identifying information or data with the state to access a range of public programs.
SEDI Director George McEwan said that would help streamline access and reduce fraud, using the example of Utah's Women, Infants and Children nutritional program.
“I have not yet seen an individual who qualified for WIC who is not also qualified for Medicaid. But you have to start over every time,” he told the Summit County Housing Authority. “You start over with a different program rather than use the aggregate data that you have available that's been vetted to go between programs.”
The Utah Legislature passed Senate Bill 275 this year to regulate SEDI and set up a “digital identity bill of rights,” which includes the right to privacy and makes digital identity programs optional.
Seggos is also a part of Park City Leadership Class 32 and is starting a company with classmates to apply the digital wallet concept to affordable housing.
'One Door Home'
Mountainlands would pay the company, One Door Home, to develop the online application. Glidden likened it to a “digital backpack.”
It would contain documents such as tax returns, which renters need to prove they meet relevant income or job restrictions.
The housing authority attached conditions to its grant, including written assurance that Mountainlands will use the money only as intended.
The deal also requires Mountainlands and One Door Home to let Summit County attorneys review the organizations’ contract.
And they must present a progress report and business plan to the housing authority within six months.
