Want to move from Nor CA to SLC, HELP!! (West Valley City: section 8, apartment complex)

[paradiseprincess24]

Hi, I am a disabled college student in San Jose, CA and am looking to relocate to SLC. I used to work for Delta and fell in love with SLC when I was in training *for 6 weeks*. I started looking at apartments and noticed how expensive the rent is. Being as I am disabled and a college student there has to be some sort of afordable housing available. I mean in CA we have affordable and subsidized housing. Can anyone recommend a reasonably low price to rent? *Disability pays 637 in UT and 850 in CA* I also don't know much about what areas are safe. I stood at the Shilo in down town and The Comfort Inn by the airport. I am also currious as to how the community colleges are and if they have transfer agreements with the universities within Utah.

I am moving because I want a fresh start. I want to leave all the drama and start my new life.

Thanks in advance!!!

[kaytidid]

I know here in Stansbury Park they have really nice apartments that are rent controlled. You cannot smoke or have pets in them though. We do have the UTA bus that would be able to take you into Salt Lake if you don't drive or don't wish to drive. There is also a USU (Utah State University) extension in Tooele. Tooele is located about 10 minutes south of Stansbury.
I would assume there are apartments in Salt Lake that offer subsidized housing, although I am not really familiar with any off hand.
Most community college credits are able to transfer to the universities.

[clsslc]

A lot of flight attendants and others working for airline companies live at Sky Harbor Apartments at just west of Redwood Road and North Temple. I live there now, and the rents start out in the mid-$500s for roughly 500 sq. ft. studios, lofts and one bedrooms. The complex is nice and well-maintained and the office hours are great (5 AM - 11 PM, 7 days a week). It is the closet apartment complex to the airport, so it would be easy to check out upon arrival. Most of the people who live there are students at the University of Utah or families new to Utah, lots of Hindi and Pakistani families, and some African refugees also, all super friendly BTW. Anyway, it is the cheapest well-maintained apartment near downtown that I've found in four years in SLC. Some of the reviews of this place on sites like Apartments.com or ApartmentGuide.com are negative, but in my opinion most of the people with complaints sound like the types of people who just don't get along with anyone. The management has been very responsive to anything I've had for them in my time here.

It sits at the foot of the "Rose Park" neighborhood, which doesn't have a good reputation, but I haven't had any problems living here whatsoever. There is a local bum, and the houses in the blocks north of here are kind of shoddy, but that's about the extent of it. You might find on search engines talk of "gang activity" in Rose Park, but if you look at the city police reports, this "gang activity" is mostly graffiti (hah). There isn't much real gang activity here from what I've seen.

West Valley City probably is probably the cheapest SLC suburb, but it also has a bad reputation. I lived there for a year, and the only bad part about it is lots of kids playing rap music loudly in their cars, and lots of trashy shops and stores (lots of payday loan shops and pawn shops everywhere, not a place you'd be thrilled inviting your parents). If you can tolerate that, there isn't really anything bad about the area. "High crime" areas in Utah are equivalent to "low crime" areas in most other parts of the US (I grew up in the Midwest and have also lived on the East Coast / New England area), and the crime statistics seem to be mostly graffiti and car-radio thefts in the most shoddy areas. The Redwood Campus (main campus) of Salt Lake Community College is located in Taylorsville/West Valley City, so if you are looking to attend you'd be really close in West Valley or Taylorsville.

Salt Lake Community College is an excellent community college, with a much higher reputation than comparable community college systems in other states. You can see this from the accreditation their individual programs have, like adhering to the ACM curriculum recommendations for their Computer Science program---contact the individual departments for details. They have seamless articulation agreements with the University of Utah, Weber State University, Utah State University, Westminster College, and tolerable articulation agreements with Brigham Young University. Stay away from Eagle Gate, Provo College, University of Phoenix and DeVry University systems---they are way overpriced and the credits do not transfer as well as the community college's. You mentioned that you are interested in transferring to the University of Utah. This is an excellent choice, as they are particularly highly-ranked in the medical and engineering disciplines and the physical sciences---they have a Nobel laureate in the Chemistry department, a Turing award winner (Alan Kay, inventor of Smalltalk and object-oriented programming) in the Computer Science department, etc., and the founders or co-founders of many high-tech companies have come from there (Adobe, Pixar, Silicon Graphics, etc.). Also, they rank second only to MIT in the number of new venture companies spun off from research projects, and their research budget is only a small fraction of MIT's! Great news for prospective students is that their admissions department is based on an admissions index system---as a transfer student, so long as your GPA is sufficiently high, you are guaranteed admission there, so you don't have to have any anxiety about getting in (call the admissions office for detail)!

All SLC suburbs are part of the SLC metropolitan area---you can see from a quick gander on Google Maps that they all run together---except maybe Tooele, so any of the "suburbs" are within a 20 minute driving distance to any place at which you might find a job. Most areas outside of the downtown area have the look of newer developments, with lots of new buildings and suburban shopping.

The only cheaper apartments I know of in downtown are called "Covey Apartments", and I think they start out at around $400. I took a tour of them a couple years ago and they looked kind of gross---it's an older building with water heaters and old, somewhat gross carpeting, and the square footage is quite small, perhaps 400 sq. ft.

As far as living expenses go, cable internet runs around $60-70, power will range from $45 in the warmer months to maybe $100 in the cold months. Many places pay for water, sewage and garbage, but if they don't that might be $15-30 a month.

Anywhere in the SLC metropolitan area, you can find really nice apartments (new carpent, granite counters, etc.) for $650 and upwards. ApartmentGuide.com features most of the nice places.

Housing around here seems to be much more expensive, with little under $175-200K. The cheapest houses will be found in Tooele (45 minutes from SLC) and Ogden (an hour from SLC, a whole different area really, and kind of shoddy in comparison---Weber State University is there though).

[clsslc]

Also, I forgot to mention that basically anywhere in the SLC metropolitan area (and even outside this area) has access to public transportation via the Utah Transit Authority bus lines. Routes can be found at Riding UTA .

[Poqui]

I concur with clsslc. I would look at the UTA public transport lines and begin my search along those routes. SLCC has a transfer agreement with the U of U so it's easy to start at "slick" and finish at "The U."

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

UTA runs FlexTrans, which you have to apply for. You have to make an appointment about a week in advance and be ready when they come. One of my patients used to use it and she had problems with them suspending her service b/c she was late a few times - she had incontinence problems and had to go back inside a few times, to change. However, it does get you where you need to go (she went to/from college). You can check it out on the UTA web site.

[paradiseprincess24]

Thank you all so very much for your help!!! I will have a car when I move, so transportation won't be an issue. I want to be able to see my friends in CA from time to time. I've lived here all my life and am looking forward to exploring the areas around. I'll be visiting SLC some time in the beginning of the year to see how I handle snow and check out the schools. I hope they have good Sociology programs, I want to be a professor when I graduate.

[paradiseprincess24]

Ok, so I looked at Covey apartments and love them!! If you look apartmenthomeliving and search under affordable housing, you will see how upgraded it is now. I can't wait to move to SLC! Oh and Covey also accepts Section 8.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

I had a petient who told me that there was a 2-yr wait list to get Sec. 8 housing vouchers. Then later she told me they closed the list to new applicants as it was too long. Not sure of the status now but better check before you plan on it.

[paradiseprincess24]

I will. Thanks Southern.