Fund to finance affordable housing
Final version up for review by cities, county this month
 

By Christine Dell'Amore
July 11, 2004
 

Local and state housing funds may provide the materials for building both affordable homes and awareness in the valley.

"The whole financial piece of affordable housing is the toughest part," said Colin Laird, coordinator for Healthy Mountain Communities, a Carbondale-based regional planning entity. "If we have the chance to make it easier, we'd have the chance to build more affordable housing."

Laird, with the support of local governments and other housing organizations, will submit the final version of the Roaring Fork Community Housing Fund for review by the governments of Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, Basalt and Garfield County this month. If approved, the fund would provide nonprofit and private developers financial backing to construct more affordable housing units in the valley.

The elevated costs of labor, construction and land of most affordable housing projects creates a small margin of profit, in turn making them unattractive to developers, said Susan Shirley, executive director of the Carbondale-based Mountain Regional Housing Corporation, which offers classes - in both English and Spanish - on homeownership, and offers a loan assistance program for valley residents.

The regional fund makes affordable housing more desirable to developers by acting as both a financial and information resource, Shirley said.

The Mile High Housing Fund in Denver laid the foundation for the Roaring Fork fund, but the valley's high housing costs in a mostly rural setting presents different obstacles than in the Front Range, Laird said.

"It's even more challenging in this area than in Denver," he said. "Given the need for affordable housing, people have recognized that this could be an important tool in moving this concept forward."


A history of housing issues

The impact of the Roaring Fork valley's resort and recreation industry, in addition to increased rates of second-home ownership, have contributed to the rising prices in housing. The federal government defines housing as affordable when a person pays no more than 30 percent of her income for gross housing costs, including utilities, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The average sales price in 2004 for a house in Basalt is $500,000, in Carbondale, $399,000 and in Glenwood Springs, $370,000. Comparatively, in the 1990s a house in Carbondale sold for $100,000, Laird said.

Compared to the U.S. government's "standard city" benchmark, these prices are 700 percent higher in Pitkin County and more than 400 percent higher in Garfield County, Shirley said. In addition, the cost of housing has tripled as compared to wages in the past 10 years in the lower valley, Laird said.

"We make pretty good salaries, but because of the high cost of housing, it's very difficult for a young person or couple to get into their first home," Shirley said.

In the 1970s, Pitkin County enacted a real estate transfer tax, so a percentage of the sale of each home goes to affordable housing, a novel system still in place today. But Garfield County has not followed suit.

"Glenwood Springs has a real high need to look at housing," Shirley said. "There isn't a lot of land left. We need leadership of government to say, 'This is what we have and this is what we want.'"


Costs of commuting

Finding an affordable home often means driving longer distances to work, putting even more stress on residents.

"The problem with it is that it is really hard on families," Shirley said. "People are not really connected if they have to leave at dawn and come back at dark."

Children are often the first to suffer, particularly when they move often from school to school, said Britta Fisher, executive director of Housing Justice!, a faith-based nonprofit in Denver advocating affordable housing. Housing Justice! recently organized an 800-mile walk across Colorado to increase consciousness of the lack of affordable housing in the state.

Because children are forced to change schools when parents move in search of affordable housing, they often do poorly in their classes, said Fisher. Not only does this impact the mobile students, but the stable students in the class must sit through more reviews of material to refresh the new students.

"When people see it as a community issue, that's when we can get real about our community's solutions and realize, 'It's my child's problem,'" Fisher said.


Solutions

Across the state, organizations and individuals have gotten involved in the campaign for cheaper housing.

"Housing is the number one issue in the valley," said Tom Ziemann, director of Catholic Charities in Glenwood, an organization that provides assistance, such as emergency financial aid and immigration services, to low-income valley residents.

"From the vantage point of the working poor, who we represent, the No. 1 problem is housing costs. Everything trickles downhill from there," he said.

No Name resident and homeless-advocate Jack Real, who coordinated the walk's visit and forum to Glenwood Springs on July 3, said the lack of affordable housing in the valley hurts the community.

"It will eventually create a situation where only the same income people live in a place and eliminate the healthy variety of people and the diversity that makes our country great," said Real, who worked for 15 years for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless in Denver.

The Glenwood Springs Housing Commission, an advisory commission to the City Council, targets opportunities to develop affordable housing for "critical workers" in Glenwood, such as teachers, firefighters, policemen and key people in the medical field, said Jill Peterson, a city planner for Glenwood.

"What we're trying to do is get all the organizations in the valley together so we have a focus that we're working toward, and we're not duplicating efforts," Peterson said.

Beyond the valley, Coloradans are exploring ways to solve the housing crisis.

The Colorado Housing Trust Fund, a statewide public investment in affordable housing, would set aside $26.5 million to potentially form 3,400 new homes and 3,200 new jobs in Colorado, according to the Colorado Housing Trust Fund Coalition. The fund would not only provide money for new construction of housing units, but also contribute to preservation, land acquisition, down payment assistance and loans. Supporters of the trust hope the fund will be voted on in a state referendum on the 2006 ballot.

Developer Kenneth L. Hoagland, president of the Community Capital Corporation in Denver, participated in Housing Justice!'s housing walk through Glenwood, and said he favors the idea of a state trust fund.

"Thirty-six other states have done it," he said. "It's time for Colorado to get on board for that idea."

Some affordable housing units in the region have been success stories, such as Thompson's Corner, a 60-unit development in Carbondale built in 1998, Shirley said. Houses in the development range from $99,000 to $150,000, she said.

Since 1998, 37 percent of the original homeowners in Thompson Corner sold their homes, and 72 percent of those owners purchased homes in the free market. Movement into the free market represents one goal of affordable housing - giving residents an opportunity to build equity and pay off loans, as a kind of steppingstone, Shirley said.

Living in Thompson Corner has allowed Malcolm McMichael, an accountant for Pitkin County, to commute from Carbondale to Aspen without having to live farther downvalley.

The neighborhood was built inexpensively yet practically, and has given people a chance to "get their feet wet" before moving into free-market housing, said McMichael, who is also president of the Thompson Corner Homeowner's Association.

"It's a huge asset. Not only do we have the diversity and range of residents from retirees to kids, we've got a range of careers represented," he said.

Affordable housing issues should be dealt with regionally, McMichael said, and he hopes local jurisdictions can work together to find ways of creating cheaper living opportunities.

Shirley said she envisions the communities of the valley interconnected and interdependent, where people would not have to commute far distances or struggle with paying their bills. But more dialogue between governments needs to occur first, she said.

"Garfield County has to come to grips with the fact it has these affordability issues," Shirley said. "The town of Glenwood Springs, by setting up a housing commission, is putting a good step forward. But it still has a lot of work to do."



Contact Christine Dell'Amore: 945-8515, ext. 535

cdellamore@postindependent.com