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ChampionedHousing

Build 35,000 new starter homes in Utah within five years through the 'Utah First Homes' program, targeting attainable single-family homes for first-time buyers.

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ChampionedFact-checker reviewConfidence: 80%

Adversarial re-check: all four cited sources were independently fetched and are real, live, and accurately quoted — no invented or misquoted citations. (1) The Dec. 5, 2023 Utah governor's office release is genuine and states the goal as 'creating 35,000 new starter homes by 2028' backed by $150 million ($50M first-time homebuyer assistance, $75M State Infrastructure Bank, $25M innovation/construction). (2) KUER (Oct. 31, 2024) confirms the $300 million Utah Homes Investment Program signed into law March 2024 and the first funded project, JDC Ranch in Weber County, breaking ground with 12 of 20 first-phase homes under $400,000. (3) The July 1, 2026 governor's office release confirms HB 68 (2026 session) created a Division of Housing and Community Development within GOEO plus a $100 million State Housing Infrastructure Partnership Fund, explicitly tied to the starter-home goal. (4) SUU News (Jan. 2026) confirms the ~6,500-homes-in-two-years figure attributed to housing advisor Steve Waldrip. Outcome test: Cox is the originator and sustained driver of this program, not a passive supporter — he proposed the budget, signed the enabling revolving-loan legislation, and secured a new state division and a further $100M in the 2026 session specifically to accelerate it. That is squarely CHAMPIONED ('actively LED/sponsored/drove the effort... even if not fully enacted'). FULL is unavailable: delivery is materially behind pace (~6,500 of 35,000, roughly 19% delivered at the 40% mark of the clock). IGNORED/ABSTAINED/MISALIGNED/HOSTILE are refuted by the record, and NO_OPPORTUNITY is refuted by extensive action. The genuine competing call is PARTIAL, since some homes have been built but not all — I considered and rejected it because the promise's own deadline (end of 2028) has not arrived, so a proportional-delivery grade would prematurely score an open promise; the rubric reserves CHAMPIONED for exactly this case of leadership on a not-yet-completed goal. Party-neutrality check: a Democratic governor with an identical record (signature housing target, $450M+ committed across three sessions, enabling legislation signed, new agency created, ~19% delivered with 2.5 years remaining) would receive the same CHAMPIONED label under this standard. Confidence set at 0.80 rather than higher because the CHAMPIONED/PARTIAL boundary is genuinely close and because the 6,500 figure counts statewide starter-home production rather than units provably caused by the program. Should be re-rated to FULL or PARTIAL against the final December 2028 count.

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