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Habitat for Humanity buys 14 new lots

Land costs big challenge in affordable housing

Habitat for Humanity of La Plata County works to provide affordable housing for the county’s working families. One of the biggest challenges in that task is finding reasonably priced land where the organization can build the homes.

That will be a little easier for the next builds as the organization is celebrating its new ownership of the remaining 14 lots at the Fox Farm Village subdivision in Bayfield. Habitat purchased the lots from Housing Solutions for the Southwest, and La Plata County Community Development Corp. helped by providing funds for the purchase and securing a loan for the remaining costs.

“The purchase price was $240,000,” said Rachel Taylor-Saghie, executive director of Habitat. “Herb Brodsky and Reid Ross worked through community development and were able to get $144,000 toward the purchase price; we paid $24,000, and the $80,000 loan will allow us to pay it off whenever we start a build. We’ll pay $20,000 each time, and after four houses, it will be paid off.”

Housing Solutions has transferred its focus to transitional housing, so the lots no longer conformed with its mission, she said. Habitat has been the only builder in the subdivision for years, building on average two homes a year, often in duplex form.

“My biggest fear has been, ‘Where do we find lots for the next build-out?’” Taylor-Saghie said. “To buy a lot with utilities, it will cost you from $85,000 to $189,000 in Bayfield. It’s nice to have some lots banked.”

The affordable-housing crisis continues to grow in La Plata County, Taylor-Saghie said.

“We’re still seeing more people who would have been considered middle class slipping into our income guidelines,” she said. “At this point, more than 50 percent of the county’s population falls into our guidelines.”

The problem isn’t a decrease in wages, although many wages have stagnated since 2008; it’s the rapidly rising cost of housing because of a limited supply and an influx of new residents, she said.

According to the Division of Housing at the Colorado Department of Urban Affairs, in the first quarter of 2009, average rent was $829. By the third quarter of 2014, it was $1,176. That’s an increase of almost 42 percent in just more than five years.

“I’m sad to say that the community is not coming up with the solution to keeping a workforce that is not becoming indebted just to live here,” Taylor-Saghie said. “Losing highly educated people such as teachers, specialists, workforce, management, nonprofit employees, social workers, government employees, etc., due to lack of adequate and desirable housing opportunities has been a recent trend. They talk about trying to bring businesses to the area, but where are their employees going to live?”

Many people don’t understand that a Habitat home is not a free home, she said.

Families put in significant sweat equity as a down payment, then pay a mortgage like every other homeowner. The difference is that the home is affordable because of the many volunteers who help build it and reasonable prices for land to the nonprofit. Habitat also is building highly efficient homes, so homeowners will not face high utility bills.

“We have created a model that works,” Taylor-Saghie said. “A donation to Habitat for Humanity of La Plata County provides current residents with affordable home ownership of modest, decent homes built by our community effort.”

Habitat will break ground for its next two homes in duplex-form in April. The Benson and Tolver families will move into their new digs in late fall.

abutler@durangoherald.com



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