I was at City Hall recently doing my volunteer job as a Historic Landmarks commissioner, protecting designated historic neighborhoods, when staff was all atwitter about a new study on gentrification, called "Thriving in Place."

The new report—available at thrivinginplaceslc.org—summarizes what researchers have heard and learned from hundreds of hours of community engagement and input, as well as offering cutting-edge data analysis by the Urban Displacement Project on displacement risks in the city and region.

The 42-page Phase 1 Summary was made possible by University of Utah students—working under the direction of professors Ivis Garcia Zambrana and Alessandro Rigolon—who gleaned information from thousands of Salt Lake City residents.

The report is a major call to action, as it finds that displacement in Salt Lake City is significant and getting worse; there are no "affordable" neighborhoods in Salt Lake City where lower income families can move once displaced; the city is growing and there are not enough housing units overall, and there's a significant lack of affordable housing units for low-income families; almost half of the city's renter households are rent burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing; displacement affects more than half of white households and disproportionally affects households of color; the patterns of displacement reflect historic patterns of discrimination that closely align with areas that were redlined in the past.

We had to spend money as a city to learn the obvious? There will be a Phase 2 with more community engagement coming in the future when researchers will define a course of action and draft guiding principles. The intent is to be pro-housing and pro-tenant; to incentivize new residential development that benefits the most people; to discourage new development that does the most harm; to increase housing options by creating "gentle infill" and rental housing opportunities and by incentivizing lower-priced, for-sale housing opportunities; to increase spending on rental assistance while supporting living wage jobs; and to support cultural institutions and locally owned businesses and public spaces that help communities thrive in place.

What I personally haven't seen yet as part of this study—or any other study to date—is an inventory of Salt Lake City-owned properties that are sitting vacant or undeveloped, or any plan by city leaders to develop such properties and provide low income/affordable housing options. As a senior citizen myself, it's frightening to know that there are so few housing projects that are both affordable and available for seniors over 55 to thrive in place.

I hope the researchers make sure to pull out my demographic to study and to seek solutions for, because it seems Boomers are getting older faster (wait until you get older—time flies!) and with Social Security benefits not keeping up with inflation, there are a whole lot of seniors hurting and house-poor.

I'm often counseling friends and clients on reverse mortgages so they might keep their homes. Sadly, I also have to sell a senior's home because they can't safely use the stairs anymore.