Housing experts: Basement rentals may not help housing crisis

Residents of Logan are now able to rent out their basements under a new law intended to help alleviate Utah’s shortage of affordable housing — but local housing specialists are not confident the law will have much, if any, effect on the people it seeks to help.

Under the terms of House Bill 82, which was signed into law by Gov. Spencer Cox in March, cities must allow most residents to rent out internal accessory dwelling units, or ADUs — basement and attached apartments — in their owner-occupied, single-family homes.

“Accessory dwelling units are being viewed as a quick and easy fix for providing additional affordable housing in a very tight housing market,” Mike DeSimone, Logan’s community development director, said at a city council meeting on Aug. 17.

As the business outreach and housing coordinator for the Bear River Association of Governments, Paul Davis is unsure that the ADUs policy will be that quick fix. Its success relies on homeowners to put their basements on the rental market.

“The word has to get to people,” Davis said.

Davis has tried to start that process in his communications with the county’s largest interfaith program.

“I’ve gone to Cache Community Connections and asked them to look in their various congregations and see if they can find one dwelling in that congregation or that ward area that they can make an ADU out of, so that we can have an immediate impact,” Davis said.

The ADUs policy aims to increase affordability for both homeowners and renters. The additional income a basement rental would provide the homeowner could stabilize their household.

William Hochstedler, the branch broker of Equity Real Estate Solutions, advocated for the ADUs policy at Logan City Council meetings because of its potential benefit to new homebuyers, but he isn’t convinced that the policy will benefit renters.

“Adding rental units to existing single family homes may not impact the rental market at all,” Hochstedler said. “A few dozen ADUs each year is not very significant compared to 6,000 or so rental units in Logan.”

Availability is not the only thing that could keep people from finding affordable housing in basement rentals.

“There’s no rent control on ADUs and there’s nothing that would prevent, I think, anybody from setting whatever price tag they want on their rental,” said Jess Lucero, a member of the Local Homeless Coordinating Council.

Lucero, who holds a doctorate in social work, focuses on housing justice issues at both the local and state level.

“We can get stuck in this place of, ‘Well that’s not gonna work. That’s not gonna work. That’s not gonna work,’” Lucero said. “Instead of trying something on for size and seeing if it can solve just a little bit.”

Last year, Lucero and her colleagues conducted a study of about 130 landlords in the region.

“We’re finding that, overwhelmingly, landlords are reporting that they want to be a part of the solution,” Lucero said. “They just don’t really know where to start, or how to help.”

Lucero and her colleague Jayme Walters are working with the Bear River Association of Governments and other housing specialists to design some outreach and education for small landlords.

“We have to do our best as communities to solve each little piece of the puzzle,” Lucero said. “One thing I think the ADUs policy has at least the potential to accomplish is to start chipping away at this massive and sometimes paralyzing challenge that we perceive.”