Workforce Housing Investment Strategy

La Plata County and its local governments need to be intentional about creating below-market housing wherever possible. We are defining below-market housing as all housing that is created and delivered to the consumer that is below the existing market prices. increasing housing supply may eventually soften prices, but in a new post-COVID world, markets have shifted and communities cannot assume that more housing necessarily means less expensive housing.

Furthermore, water scarcity and infrastructure capacity issues will eventually require local governments to prioritize what housing projects should have access to infrastructure. As such, each government should consider setting a goal of creating a specific number of below-market housing units through the private sector development pipeline by providing direct subsidies. This is often referred to as a “buydown program.”

• Coordinate the allocation of Private Activity Bonds (PABs) through a regional agreement.
• Coordinate countywide support of housing projects applying for tax credits, prioritizing those with community sponsors and those which assist in recruiting developers for specific projects.
• Enact uniform local government policies for below-market housing fee waivers.
• Establish a Housing Catalyst Fund to support non-tax credit rental projects with predevelopment costs, including employer-initiated below-market rental development.
• Support Fort Lewis College’s efforts to develop below-market rental housing for staff and faculty in the next 18 to 24 months on campus land.

• Provide technical assistance to municipalities to support subdivision development, identify development partners, find funds to subsidize projects, set below-market pricing, and develop resale controls while engaging in other activities that will result in the production of more below-market units for-sale across La Plata County.
• Support homebuyer and mortgage assistance programs provided by the HomesFund.
• Complete a feasibility study on modular housing product options to create more affordable housing.

• Coalesce around “big idea” regional projects that bring together municipal and county resources as well as private funds to create development at a scale that focuses on addressing the significant need to create development at scale  tha focuses on addressing the significant need to create for-sale housing highlighted in the Root Policy study and affirmed in stakeholder interviews.

• Provide local funding for technical assistance, predevelopment, resident organizing, and permanent financing for mobile home park preservation.
• Provide Private Activity Bond allocations to preserve existing affordable rental housing.

The success of this overarching 3-Year Workforce Housing Investment Strategy is predicated on the coordination of policies and resources around each strategy component.

The Regional Housing Alliance is currently defining its role, which will likely include some level of coordination among the regional governments. Emphasis here is on the opportunity for much broader coordination to increase affordable and workforce housing initiatives that lead to more units being built while engaging public and private employers, nonprofit organizations, private funding and philanthropy. The consulting team suggests establishing a cross-sector housing committee that would meet regularly to review progress on this plan and mold strategies responsively as more state and federal funding becomes available in the coming months.

The team believes that coordination efforts could fit neatly into three different arenas:

• this agency is best positioned to (1) coordinate local government technical assistance, (2) track a countywide project pipeline and request for requests for competitive federal and state programs, and (3) implement a long-term funding source for housing initiatives in La Plata County. RHA is working on creating additional capacity by hiring an executive director to manage several activities, including grant writing to support member projects, assist in sponsoring, funding or providing development services for projects, and providing technical assistance through shared contracts with third-party consultants when possible.

• The second coordination effort is yet to be developed, but there is the opportunity and a need for a grassroots coalition to help guide this work. This coalition could be composed of community members committed to ongoing education and advocacy work, and who will help push local leaders to implement the Three-Year Workforce Housing Investment Strategy and additional bold actions in response to this dynamic funding environment. Through the interview process, we did hear about new efforts to establish a housing coalition. Existing nonprofits provide some advocacy but it is not formalized or coordinated. A more formal coalition will likely be developed organically as a result of future conversations regarding a dedicated housing trust fund later this year.

• The Economic Development Alliance is uniquely positioned to coordinate local employers and the private sector for specific initiatives and focus on providing predevelopment funding and technical assistance in support of both private and public sector initiatives.
• We recommend that RHA and the Economic Development Alliance formalize their coordination with each other and co-manage a cross-sector committee that meets quarterly to review progress on this plan, coordinate new efforts and ,identify funding as opportunities emerge over the next three years.