Utah needs more public/private partnerships to solve the affordable housing crisis

Producing more affordable housing is one solution, says Schwartz, but doing so is a challenge in any urban environment for a variety of reasons. Ramping up production in the affordable sector is a place to start, but producing more homes in all housing types is the ultimate solution. “But you need to drill down how to make that happen,” he says. “I think [it all] boils down to creating public/private partnerships that produce housing, and the volume necessary that meets the criteria—those are essential to making that work.”

One example of a good public/private partnership is The Exchange, a Domain Companies project which utilized tax-exempt bonds and housing tax credits. “We worked with the state to make those programs work in a way that we were more friendly to mixed-income,” says Schwartz.