SALT LAKE CITY — A new affordable housing complex opened in the Ballpark neighborhood.
Those involved with the building hope Colony B Apartments, located at 228 W. 1300 South, will help families in need of a place to live that they can afford.
“Salt Lake City has an enormous and particularly acute housing crisis,” said Claudia O’Grady, Vice President of the Multifamily Finance Utah Housing Corporation.
O’Grady said Colony B apartments will help fill the gap of a lack of affordable housing options.
“It’s literally a stone’s throw from the TRAX station which means that households don’t necessarily have to spend money on a car or on automobile gas maintenance. They can put that money into rapid transit opportunities and really expand their horizons for work and other opportunities,” she said.
It has 104 units, 106 of which are reserved for low and very low-income city residents.
“The last three years we’ve seen incomes stay the same and housing costs double and triple,” said Josh Runhaar, Executive Director of Neighborhood Nonprofit Housing Corporation.
Runhaar said he wants people to understand that complexes like Colony B are good investments for cities and neighborhoods.
“I think affordable housing unfortunately has a stigma. People think affordable housing they think low quality. If you walk through this building you see that it’s high quality in every respect,” said Runhaar.
He and O’Grady said a unique aspect of the complex is that it prioritized 11 units for youth transferring out of foster care.
“Thank heavens people are starting to get on board,” said Natalie Clark, who was in foster care herself for six years growing up in Utah.
Clark knows how hard the transition out of foster care can be.
“When there wasn’t any housing available for me, I actually ended up staying in a really unhealthy environment that I didn’t need to be in because I didn’t really have any other options,” she said.
She said she is grateful Colony B is paving the way in giving foster youth priority for units, where she said there is a critical need for affordable housing.
“First step and a long way to go but we’re just so thankful,” said Clark, “And I’ve already referred two young people, they’ve applied and it’s just it’s such a blessing for so many of us. It really is.”
