As was mentioned in yesterday’s editorial, the non-profit organization Pagosa Housing Partners — in collaboration with the Town of Pagosa Springs, the Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce, the Pagosa Springs SUN and local realtor Mike Heraty — is conducting a ‘residential housing survey’ to put some numbers to the housing crisis currently unfolding in Archuleta County.
A ‘residential housing survey’ is not to be confused with a ‘tourism housing survey.’
You can take the survey here:
NOTE: I serve on the volunteer board of Pagosa Housing Partners, but this editorial does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the board as a whole.
In order to get a representative sample of Pagosa residents, PHP board members have been going ‘door-to-door’ to deliver survey invitations to local business owners and their employees, as well as distributing invitations through local churches and at several locations in town.
The ‘door-to-door’ part of the process has been… interesting, to say the least.
More than one store manager confessed that they have been unable to find a house or apartment to rent. Everyone who commented on the survey invitations suggested that the situation is serious and getting worse. No one, so far, has told me everything feels just fine.
We may disagree about vaccinations and face masks. We may disagree about ‘growth’. We may disagree about massive government debt for the construction of new government facilities, as our road system slowly falls apart.
But we almost all seem to be in agreement about the housing crisis. It’s bad.
Which brings to mind, for some reason, my experience being married.
I considered myself lucky to be married to a woman who stated, in no uncertain terms, the reasons why she was 1) disappointed in me, or 2) angry with me. There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than a partner who is disappointed or angry, but who will not tell you why. A partner, that is, who expects you to read their mind, as if the reasons for the tension in the room were perfectly obvious. “I shouldn’t have to tell you. You should already know.”
That, to me, is a miserable situation. Much better to have a partner who lays it all out on the table, where it can be discussed, argued over, and perhaps even addressed.
On the other hand, there is nothing pleasant about being around a partner who is constantly 1) disappointed or 2) angry, even if they’re willing to make the reasons clear.
All this relates to my visits to various business owners and business managers, over the past several days, while distributing the PHP survey invitations.
“Would you be willing to distribute these cards to your employees?”
“Be happy to. Housing is a real problem.”
The businesses and workers in Pagosa seem mostly 1) disappointed. But there’s also an hint of 2) angry. Not that I’ve been soliciting such comments. I merely hand out the invitations, and mention that we’re trying to find out how our workforce is doing with the housing situation.
I don’t mind lending an ear, if someone is feeling frustrated, or disappointed, or angry. You don’t want to keep those things bottled up.
The comment I’m hearing most often concerns the disappearance of residential housing to the vacation rental industry, and how that industry has affected rental rates and housing availability.
“All four of the other houses on my block are now vacation rentals.”
“My rent just doubled. I had to move out. I couldn’t afford it…”
“The vacation rentals need to be taxed like commercial.”
“Can you believe it? I’m the manager of a store, and I’m living in my van.”
These are, as I said, business owners and business managers to whom I’ve been speaking this week. Given the massive influx of tourists last summer, and this summer, I would have expected at least some of the business owners to be in a good mood, considering the money that tourists spend in town.
But everyone seems stressed. And mildly unhappy.
“I wish some of these tourists would go away,” the owner of a souvenir shop told me. “Yes, I’m making money, but I miss the way Pagosa used to be.”
We should, of course, give COVID-19 — and the turmoil caused by the resulting government responses — some credit for everyone’s general attitude. People were laid off unexpectedly last spring; businesses were scrambling to stay afloat. And then the real estate market and the rental market both went nuts. Even if business owners could find employees, and even if we weren’t feeling overrun — too much traffic, long lines at restaurants, poorly stocked retail shelves, phone calls not answered — I imagine people would still seem stressed.
But it’s not an illusion. People not only seem stressed and unhappy… they are, in fact, stressed and unhappy. Especially, perhaps, the business owners and employees.
Then there are the ‘old timers’ like me, who have been here 30 years or longer, who maybe grew up here. Our houses are paid off; we have a security net of family and friends; we’re settled into our careers, or retired. But many of us are not rich, or influential. We look out at this landscape of frustration, and wish we could help.
Looking at things historically, Pagosa Springs was not a place where people typically ended up acquiring great wealth. Historically, any wealthy people living in Pagosa have brought their money with them, as retirement, as pensions, as investment income.
Historically, working families were able to ‘get by’ because housing was affordable, and recreation and entertainment was free, or low cost.
What happened?
And what do we do now?
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.