In Part One on Friday, I mentioned the ‘lottery’ process planned for ten new homes in the Pagosa Trails subdivision. The homes are intended for ten working families with below-median household incomes. The project is being spearheaded by the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC) with support from the Archuleta County government, Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation, the State of Colorado, and numerous PSCDC donors. One of the restrictions that will be placed on the homes: the new owners must live in the house, and may not use the house as a Short-Term Rental (STR).
I also mentioned that, while we do indeed have a serious housing crisis in Archuleta County, we don’t have a shortage of homes. We have a shortage of ‘available homes’. A good portion of our residential units are second homes, or STRs. Or both. Many local STRs are in fact ‘second homes’ that are being offered to tourists during certain times of the year when the second-home owners are not here.
Some observers (myself included) blame Pagosa’s high home prices and high long-term-rental rates partly on the conversion of local homes into mini-motels that serve these second-home owners, and their tourist renters.
At the June 18 Archuleta Board of County Commissioners meeting, the commissioners heard a proposal for a future, positive use for STRs.
Kristen Bair, the Housing Advocate at local non-profit Rise Above Violence, works to find housing for victims of domestic violence. It’s not unusual for domestic violence victims to face a difficult choice between returning to the home where the violence has been occurring, or to seek a safer place to live — possibly a temporary place with a friend or family member.
Ms. Bair had brought along a Power Point slide show to help illustrate her ideas.
“In 2023, we served 351 clients…
“We have three types of housing programs at the moment. We have an emergency housing program, designated for clients who need a place to stay for one-to-three nights, when they’re in dire need… maybe they had an incident happen and they just need somewhere to go.
“After that, we have our transitional housing, which is provided through partnerships in our community, to utilize guest apartments in private homes, and provides victims with short-term rental housing to allow them to get on their feet. A lot of time, when they get to this point, they’re having the realization that they really need to make that tough move… and we work with Archuleta Housing and Hickory Ridge to try and get them bumped up to the top of the waiting list…”
We can note that most any type of affordable housing in Archuleta County has a long waiting list for available units.
Ms. Bair:
“Then we have our long-term housing program, where we give clients six months to become financially independent, and we do that by paying 100% of the rent for two months; then we go to 80% for two months; then 60% and then 40%, with the goal that they will be independent by that time, and be able to take over the full payment themselves…”
Often, a domestic partner living in an abusive situation has allowed themselves to become dependent — emotionally and also financially — on their abuser. Leaving that situation, they may find themselves with poor credit or no credit, and possibly with a limited job experience.
“And 80% of our clients have children. So that’s a huge chunk.
“At the moment, we have four transitional housing units. One is a couple who live further out, and they let us use the apartment above their garage…
“We also have a master lease on an apartment, that we pay $1000 a month on. $12,000 a year. Unfortunately, that one will be going away at the beginning of the school year. We’re very sad about that. It’s a very nice place, right in town; very accessible for our clients who don’t have transportation.
“And then we have two units that have just signed on to our Safehome Partnership Program, which I will get into in a minute.
“So that makes four. But soon to be three.
“Our goal is to find owners who Short-Term Rent their properties, who will donate their homes to a client for up to 21 days. In order to incentivize property owners to sign on to this program, we offer a tax donation and a utility allowance of $10 per day in the summer and $20 per day in the winter.
“We don’t want property owners to go in the hole; we just want them to be empowered to help. And we pay a $250 cleaning fee…”
Ms. Bair looked across the table at the three commissioners.
“And we’re hoping for incentives from you guys…”
If Ms. Bair had been making this same appeal to the BOCC eight years ago, I doubt she would have met with much success in obtaining incentives. Eight years ago, the general sentiment expressed by the County commissioners, when faced with questions around housing, was something like:
“It’s not the job of government to provide housing. The housing market will take care of itself.”
What a difference eight years can make.
The BOCC now offers property tax rebates for low income housing projects, and has donated a total of about 40 vacant tax-lien parcels to PSCDC and Habitat for Humanity Archuleta. They’ve also allocated federal funding to Archuleta Housing Corporation, Archuleta County Housing Authority, Aspen House, and Habitat.
One thing they have so far refused to do: place density caps on Short-Term Rentals, something many Colorado mountain resort towns have done to try and preserve the character of their residential neighborhoods. (We will note that density caps have been recommended by County planning staff.)
The latest reports from the Tourism Board suggest that the explosion in Pagosa tourism during the COVID crisis has now come to an end, and we can probably expect fewer tourists this year and into the future.
Perhaps we will have some STR owners who have fewer bookings? Maybe they would like to help victims of domestic violence?
Possibly, the County can offer some incentives to encourage such a program…
Ms. Bair can be reached at kristen@riseaboveviolence.org