Case Outline

Your name: Joshua Anderson

Proposition/Thesis: Utah shall offer incentives to housing developers for the creation of low-income housing in
Utah.
Type of Organization: Stock Issues

I. Ill: Housing in the State of Utah is way too expensive.

A. The average cost of rent.
i. The average rent for an apartment in Salt Lake City is $1,166, a 7% increase compared
to the previous year, when the average rent was $1,087. (RentCafe, 2019)
B. The average income of Utah citizen.
i. The Distribution of average renter household expenditures in the Western U.S statistic
shows that 35% of income renter household’s make goes toward housing. As compared
to the US average of 25%. (Workforce Services, 2017)
ii. the average renter earns less than the necessary wage to afford a two-bedroom apartment
at Fair Market Rent in 27 out of 29 counties. In only nine counties does the average
renter householder have a wage greater than or equal to 80 percent of the income
necessary to afford an Fair Market Rent apartment.
iii. Average income in Utah increased by 1.43% over 2017. It increased 8.26% over the
three years before that. (DeptofNumbers, 2017)
II. Blame: There isn’t enough home units being built to meet the demands of our growing population.
A. Tons of people are moving in.
i. Utah’s population has DOUBLED in the past 30 years, and is set to double again by
2050.
B. Housing is being build at a slow rate.
i. Since 2010, Utah has added four new households (families) for every three new housing
units. (SL Chamber, n.d.)
III. Plan: An incentive program to make building affordable housing more appealing is a great option
C. The money used will be strictly taken from last year’s budget surplus of 158 million dollars.
i. On October 16, the Legislative Fiscal Analyst’s Office reported to members of the
Executive Appropriations Committee that Utah closed fiscal year 2018 with a budget
surplus of nearly $158 million. (UT Legislature, 2018)
 D. Affordable housing creates a lot of units and packs them into a tight space.
i. This doesn’t mean high rises and sky scrapers filled with people. That becomes more
expensive to build. This just means smaller multi-unit residences on less land wasted.
IV. Benefits: The Price of housing will drop across the board, Utah families will have more disposable
income and Traffic will be lighter.
E. Tightly packed units allow for more people to live close to their work space, which cuts down on
commute times.
i. When people live closer to their jobs, they don’t spend as much time on the roads. Right
now a lot of people have to, “suffer long commutes from places where housing is more
affordable.” (Editorial Board, 2018)
F. With more housing available at a cheap price the demand will decrease and the cost of housing
will drop.
i. “according to the demand relationship, as demand decreases, so does the price.” (Hayes,
n.d.)
Reference Page

Adam Hayes (n.d.). Economics basics: supply and demand. Retrieved

from https://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3.asp

DeptofNumbers.com (2019). Utah household income. Retrieved from

https://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/utah/

Deseret News Editorial Board (Sep. 2018.). In our opinion: high-density housing will be the future of
Utah. Retrieved from https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900031559/in-our-opinion-high-density-housing-
will-be-the-future-of-utah.html

RentCafe.com (Apr.2019). Salt Lake City, UT rental market trends. Retrieved from
https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ut/salt-lake-county/salt-lake-city/

The Salt Lake Chamber (n.d.). Housing gap coalition, more people. fewer houses. Retrieved from
https://slchamber.com/housinggapcoalition/?utm_source=Search&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=2019
HousingGap&gclid=CjwKCAiA767jBRBqEiwAGdAOr6NbP4m_m1Qi612xxo_Osf78Ql46LgjyUZ9S3tbcXaeZRQoaJv
csxRoCH64QAvD_BwE

UT Legislature (Oct. 2018.). State closes fiscal 2018 with $158 million budget surplus. Retrieved from
https://budget.utah.gov/2018/10/17/budgetsurplus/

Workforce Services (2017). Affordable housing assessment. Retrieved from

https://jobs.utah.gov/housing/publications/documents/affordablehousingreport.pdf