Despite progress increasing affordable and workforce housing units in Durango and La Plata County, the housing shortage continues to threaten the area’s workforce, and vicariously, the very character of the region, according to the Regional Housing Alliance.
Pat Vaughn, chairperson of the Regional Housing Alliance of La Plata County, was a guest speaker Tuesday at the Durango Chamber of Commerce’s March Eggs & Issues forum, where he continued to ring alarm bells about the area’s housing crisis.
He had two major points to make during his approximately 20 minutes with a microphone. No. 1, housing has never in history been as unaffordable as it is now. No. 2, the county and its municipalities need a local funding source for housing projects.
Southwest Colorado is rural and isolated, and the communities of the region must be self-reliant to reduce the pressures of the housing crisis, Vaughn said.
We can’t depend on the state to solve our problems,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out a way locally to make it happen.”
He said members of the RHA, which include Durango, Bayfield, Ignacio and La Plata County, applied for nearly $16 million worth of housing grants last year and only about $5 million was awarded.
Collectively, the United States has underbuilt for the last 15 years and it will take another 15 years to recover, he said.
“If we have the political will, if we are willing to do this, it’s going to take us 15 years to get us out of this hole. That’s a big ‘if,’” he said.
He said increasing home prices have diverged radically from income increases, a trend that is often misattributed to the pandemic. The trend started before COVID-19 entered the fray.
Good news is RHA member municipalities are set up to exceed their total baseline commitment to Prop 123 for assistance funding – a target of 320 units built by 2026 – by a factor of two or three, he said.
While municipalities continue to expand their housing inventories, the RHA has built a STEER Committee of area residents who will advise the RHA board on how to establish a “consistent, dependable and sustainable” source of funding, he said.
He said he suspects any solution will require a ballot question to voters. Such a funding source would be used for acquisition, rehabilitation and preservation of land and standing buildings, and for leveraging matching funds.
Without a community investment fund of some sort – it is difficult to use conventional debt – to tap into tax credits and government programs and to secure other sources of funding, he said.
“It’s hard to get all that other stuff if you don’t bring something to the table,” he said.
The Economic Alliance of La Plata County created a catalyst fund for the RHA, which helps fund risky front-end development processes such as soil analyses, environmental studies and feasibility studies that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.
A committee reviews applications to the catalyst fund, which has raised $800,000 and awarded over $300,000, with a couple more rounds to go, he said. With the dissolution of the Durango Industrial Development Foundation, another $1 million was passed to the RHA for use as revolving loan funds, which can be reused perpetually.
The RHA is scheduled to host its first Southwest Housing Summit called “Coming Home” at the DoubleTree Hotel all day April 30.
“This in my opinion is the most important issue that we have to tackle,” he said of the area's housing shortage. “Because if we don’t do it, then this isn’t going to be our community anymore. And that would be a tragedy.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
