Between September 28th and October 4th Crossroads Urban Center will be cohosting a series of virtual candidate forums focused on housing and homelessness for all five of the Salt Lake City Council elections happening this year. These virtual forums are all open to the public and so everyone is welcome to register.Each forum will be moderated by a different agency that serves people impacted by homelessness or housing instability. Almost all of the candidates have agreed to participate. We have sent each candidate these four questions in advance so they have time to think about their answers:
- What should the City do to ensure that everyone camping outside who would like to be indoors this winter has a place to sleep that is safe and warm?
- Over a two year period Salt Lake City will receive about $80 million in discretionary funding through the American Rescue Plan Act that Congress passed in March. Do you support dedicating at least 20 percent of that discretionary funding to producing housing to reduce homelessness?
- New apartments are being built all over the city but most of those apartments are not affordable to families earning less than $40,000 per year. Do you support requiring developers to replace affordable housing units destroyed by new development and/or strongly incentivizing developers to include affordable units in new developments?
- Families with children, including survivors of domestic violence, are not always at the center of conversations of homelessness. Should Salt Lake City spearhead efforts to build housing that meets the specific needs of families with children coming out of homelessness?
Here is the schedule with links to register: