I work for Habitat for Humanity of Utah County. We’ve been providing affordable housing related services to Utah County residents for over 30 years, and we were excited about this opportunity to help with a new community we are working on and to support our Home Repair Program, which focuses on critical home repairs and accessibility modifications for seniors aging in place and disabled veterans. There are no guarantees in life or in grant writing, but we felt pretty good about our chances based on our track record, the enormous amount of money being distributed and the fact that both grants specifically state the funds will be “divided between a variety of wide-ranging projects.”

We were extremely disappointed that despite their acknowledgment of the challenges at hand and their specific desire to fund a “variety of wide-ranging projects”, 100% of the funds went to medical clinics. That doesn’t seem like a wide variety to me. Moreover, not a single dollar out of more than $10MM went to affordable housing.

Most will agree that we have many housing challenges everywhere, and Utah County is no exception. I assume Utah County leaders agree, or they would not have issued an RFP for affordable housing. The David Eccles School of Business recently released a presentation on housing affordability. Lots of interesting statistics in the report and two I found particularly interesting: “76% of Utah households can’t afford a median priced home” and “Utah County leads all counties except for Washington County in its share of cost burdened households which stands at 48%.” Clearly, we have a problem. If you saw the requests for help that we receive on a weekly basis, you would definitely agree that we have a lot of problems.

$10MM to spend and they spent 100% of it on medical clinics. I’m not saying we don’t need help with the supply of medical clinics, I’m suggesting that maybe this money could have and should have been allocated with their stated goal of achieving a variety of wide-ranging outcomes.

Other questions I have; why was $5MM given to for-profit universities? It’s not like they have trouble accessing funding. UVU just received $80MM for a new building from the Utah Legislature. Why does the county feel the need to kick in a few million more when these funds could have been used to support small, local non-profits? According to Monica Critchlow, who was the POC at the county for the Housing RFP, the process to determine the final outcomes “included assessment by the Grants Team, assessment by an independent group (for medical), and further review by members of the Auditor, Purchasing and Legal Departments.”

An “independent group for medical?” Who are these “independent” people? They must have had some influence to divert 100% of the funds to medical. Doesn’t sound independent to me. Furthermore, why was an independent group for “affordable housing” not included in the process? Seems biased to me.

I have a lot more to say but not enough space here to say it. I have many questions. I hope you do too. The next time you hear Utah County leaders talk about affordable housing challenges, I hope you remember how they allocated $10.5MM in grant money in 2022 and hold them accountable.

Alan Hill is the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity of Utah County.