Gov. Spencer Cox named co-chairman of National Housing Crisis Task Force

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has joined a bipartisan National Housing Crisis Task Force that intends to inspire transformational change in U.S. housing policy.

Cox made the announcement on social media last week, saying he is honored to be a co-chairman of the group, which aims to “spark a national transformation in housing policy, from the ground up,” according to a statement from its website; the task force was launched by the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University and Accelerator for America.

“Cities and states are leading the way and banding together to drive housing policy from the ground up,” Cox said in the post on the social platform X. “Together, we will work to bring innovations in housing production, preservation and finance to communities across the country.”

The task force’s July launch comes as individual states grapple with the affordable housing crisis. Housing is at its least affordable point in decades by almost any measure; almost 41 million households — nearly one-third — are cost-burdened, including more than half of renters and 19 million homeowners, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Cost burden

There is a shortage of more than 7 million affordable homes for the nation’s 10.8 million-plus extremely low-income families, according to the coalition. Additionally, it found no states or counties where a renter working full time at minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment.

The unaffordable housing crisis is a main driver in national spikes in homelessness, which jumped about 12% — 71,000 people — from 2022 to 2023. Of the 71,000 homeless people, more than 65,000 were also unsheltered, the highest number recorded since data collection began in 2007. That rising rate of homelessness is highest in states with the most severely cost-burdened renters, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

That tie has been seen clearly in Utah, with the state being ranked third in a list of least-affordable states to buy a home, according to an April report by BestBrokers.com. The report compared the state’s housing prices to the average Utahn’s income, earning its ranking just behind Hawaii and California. As Utah continues to see an affordable housing crisis, homelessness continues to rise — with 2023 seeing a 10% increase from the year prior.

‘Tough love’ approach

Frustration with the homeless crisis has grown as the Utah Legislature has allocated funding over the years. Recently, Cox and lawmakers have adopted a “tough love” approach.

A bill passed by this year’s Legislature replaced the 29-member Utah Homelessness Council with a nine-member board and changed the way funding is dispensed, placing more emphasis on service providers proving their success through data and benchmarks, among other things. More funding will go to “successful programs and providers” through the bill.

“It’s going to be really hard because some really great people are going to lose their funding. So either make sure what you’re doing is working or figure out something else to do really quickly,” Cox said in a June panel.

Cox’s selection as co-chairman of the task force, along with three other co-chairpersons — Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Fifth Third Bank’s Susan Thomas — “personify the main thesis of the effort, namely that the next generation of housing policy in the U.S. is bubbling up from states, local governments, financial institutions and their allies rather than being designed in Washington think tanks or congressional committees,” according to the task force website.

The task force has been “months in the making” and held its first meeting in New York City last month. In addition to the co-chairs will be 24 other task force members comprised of individuals from public authorities and agencies, investors, housing advocates, owners, developers and managers, philanthropies and nonprofit intermediaries.

“Unfortunately, the federal government has offered few solutions: credit enhancements here, a blueprint there, but the real action is at the state and local level,” said Cox. “Cities and states are leading the way, and now we’re banding together to drive housing policy from the ground up.”

The goals

The goals of the task force, according to its website, include:

• Identify innovative local, state and private sector housing policies and practices — across land, construction, capital, regulation and delivery — that have the highest potential for transformative and lasting impact.
• Produce a platform and roadmap for scaling and replicating these innovations across the U.S. housing ecosystem, resulting in new policies, programs and products that produce and preserve housing across all income levels in every part of America.
• Recommend changes to local, state and federal policies to deliver faster and better housing solutions at a lower cost across market-rate and subsidized-affordable housing developments.