Utilizing the Building Trades program at Pagosa Springs High School, and a new ‘RISE’ grant, the Archuleta School District (ASD) plans to begin building workforce housing in Pagosa Springs.
Very soon.
That’s according to Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza, speaking to the School Board on Tuesday, August 10.
“At this point, we’re looking at small-footprint, micro-housing, short-term options that our students could build. Because, frankly, from where I’m sitting, we need to be involved in the conversation with mid-range options and long-range options. But we also need to look at doing something immediately, because it’s not going to get better until we do something ourselves…
“We have building trades classes. We also have a workforce in building trades who are backed up a year, two years… building projects. So at this point in time, getting a group of folks who could build something that we would want to invest in, could take a few years. We need to look at what we can do, as a solution, now.
“And so, having conversations with Tor [Hessman, Building Trades Instructor], with Josh [Sanchez, Facilities Maintenance Supervisor] and with Sean [O’Donnell, Pagosa Springs High School Principal] about, what are some of the immediate things we could do — especially given that we’ve received the ‘RISE’ grant to fund two units, of some kind. Some type of ‘micro unit’.
“So at this point, we’re looking at some small-footprint, micro-housing — looking at the kind of dwellings that our students could build. We would likely have the opportunity to build one to three in the first year, three or four probably in the following years, once our students are skilled enough to begin to do that.
“That’s not going to answer all of our needs, but it will at least fill a hole.”
The hole, as the School Board and many other community leaders realize — or suspect — is enormous. Archuleta County and the Town of Pagosa Springs, decided many years ago to basically make affordable housing illegal, and adopted land use and building regulations that encouraged upscale homes. To some degree, the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association did the same. The general idea, well-meaning at it might have been at the time, was to make Pagosa Springs “more attractive” as a place to invest in real estate. Oh, and as a place to live, too. Of course.
But the “place to live” part was, unfortunately, a secondary consideration.
The types of housing that have traditionally served American workers in low-paying industries — such as the tourism industry — have never been found in large quantities in Archuleta County. I’m speaking here of multi-unit apartments, and mobile home parks. The Town of Pagosa Springs essentially outlawed mobile homes back in the 1990s, even though it has long been a fairly common housing style downtown. As a result, the few remaining mobile homes in town are old, and showing their age.
And except for a very few multi-unit apartments, mostly in the management of non-profit organizations, the historical housing in Archuleta County has been single-family homes, or townhomes, or condos.
Nice homes, for the most part.
Nice enough for vacation rental investments, for the most part.
Vacasa’s 2021 Vacation Rental Buyer Report revealed that most buyers (36.4%) currently in the market are looking to spend under $399,999, which aligns nicely with median home sale prices in many of our 25 best places to buy.
The property management firm, Vacasa, would love to help you find your dream vacation rental investment priced under $400,000. (Or, $399,999 as the case may be.)
And they have thoughtfully picked out their favorite American towns where your ‘cap rate’ — essentially, your return on your investment — is 3.4% or better. The best cap rate in their list of 2021 “Top 25 best places” is in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, with a slightly mind-blowing rate of 8.6%.
Not too far behind — in fact, at number 19 in the Vacasa list — is Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where the median home price (Vacasa claims) is $361,000. Far more than a school teacher can afford, but feasible in the hot tourism market Pagosa experienced in 2020 and 2021.
But, we can put our school teachers into “micro-housing”.
Dr. Kym didn’t clarify exactly what she and her staff meant by a “micro-housing”. Tiny homes? Micro-apartments? Tiny homes on wheels? Shipping container homes? The School Board was not told.
ASD has quite a bit of public land at its disposal — by my count, more than 100 acres of vacant property, at various locations, some more suitable than others — but if it were all used for housing, and if it were utilized at the current maximum density allowed by the Town of Pagosa Springs (22 dwelling units per acre) we would be looking 2,000 new housing units. Theoretically.
If the PSHS Building Trades program could build three units per year, this amount of vacant land could keep them busy for 700 years. Theoretically.
Our community is in crisis. The hospital has stated it, publicly. The School District has stated it, publicly. The Town Council has been actively discussing the crisis.
Even the Board of County Commissioners has expressed concerns about workforce housing, but recently decided not to deal with the damage done by the vacation rental industry.
A few more comments from Dr. Kym:
“We’re also planning a meeting with larger employers in the community, and the task force, to consider strategies being used by other communities. I’ve studied Eagle County’s school district plan. They own 160 rental units, that they prioritize for school district employees to live in, so that they have a place for them to live, and work in their community… 160 units accommodates approximately 10%-15% of their workforce.
“So it gave them an opportunity to help, in some ways, but they would tell you — because I called them — they would tell you that they still feel like they are behind the curve, given where they are right now…”
I wonder if Superintendent LeBlanc-Esparza may have misunderstood the situation in Eagle County? According to a report published by Eagle County School District, adopted in April 2020, the District does indeed have an employee housing master plan — a “10-year road map for the District’s employee housing effort.”
By 2030, the District will create 120 housing opportunities for District employees, and facilitate at least as many additional housing opportunities through partnerships, programs, and linking employees to existing resources. This goal represents supporting at least 13% of District employees with housing and additional employees will be supported by other housing programs.
The plan specifies that, in 2020, the District would obtain “Master Leases” on 10-15 dwelling units. A master lease is essentially permission to sublet a rental dwelling, so that the School District can control who is occupying the unit, even though it doesn’t own the unit. At the moment, I am unable to confirm whether the District was able to fulfill this intention.
The ten-year plan is to build 120 new units, of various types, in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity and other partners, serving the Eagle County workforce. I can’t yet confirm whether Eagle County School District currently owns even a single housing unit. But they do possess an ambitious “plan”. My hat is off to them, for that.