Photo: Western Spaces consultant Sarah McClain, far right, fields question about the new Housing Needs Assessment at a joint Town-County meeting, April 14, 2025.
We’re considering, in this editorial series, the new ‘Housing Needs Assessment’ recently presented to the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners and the Pagosa Springs Town Council. The report was officially adopted by the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, Veronica Medina, Warren Brown, and John Ranson at their April 15 meeting.
We will consider that BOCC action further in Part Three.
The Town Council also adopted the Assessment at their April 15 Town Council meeting, with Mayor Shari Pierce voting in opposition. She stated that she had not had enough time to fully understand the 112-page study.
I don’t know if the five Council members who voted to adopt the Assessment — Gary Williams, Brooks Lindner, Mat deGraaf, Maddie Bergon and Matt DeGuise — had found enough time in their busy schedules to fully understand the report.
Town Community Development Director James Dickhoff had encouraged the Council adopt the report — whether they fully understood it, or not — because an adopted Assessment is crucial to a pending petition connected to an upcoming grant deadline. This petition, to the state government, would request that Archuleta County be classified as a “rural resort” for purposes of obtaining future grant funding for housing.
The “rural resort” classification being sought takes some explaining. I hope you can bear with me.
Here’s Council member Brooks Lindner at the April 15 meeting, referring to the “rural resort” petition:
“So, I talked to Emily today…”
(This would be Emily Lashbrooke, Executive Director of the non-proit Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation [PSCDC], and the person in our community who probably knows the most about available state housing grants, rules, and submission deadlines.)
“Number one, she did get some information about the timeline of the process, of what happens after we approve this [Housing Needs Assessment] and she said, first, there’s a two week public comment period after we approve, that’s required by the state… and then the processing of it all could take another 28 days…”
(I wonder if any Daily Post readers were aware of this required two-week public comment period? I certainly hadn’t heard about it.)
“Her point was, even if we were to approve it tonight, it wouldn’t meet the deadline for her grant submission at the end of May.
“But — and this is part of the reason the BOCC went ahead and approved it today — really, the jurisdiction for her grant is the County. So by them approving it today, even though that whole process won’t be done by the time the grant deadline is up, she said she will be able to submit, in the information for the grant, that it has been approved and that they’re moving through the process…”
The “workforce” housing currently being implemented by PSCDC is located outside the town limits, in the unincorporated county. Those single family homes are priced at $329,000 to $395,000.
I put the words “workforce” in quotes because it is not actually “workforce housing” in the normal sense of the word. But what is “normal” in 2025?
Here’s a chart from the now-adopted Housing Needs Assessment adopted on April 15 by the Town Council and, separately, by the BOCC.
To afford a $395,000 house — the type of “workforce housing” being offered by PSCDC — your family needs a household income of around $115,000 a year. Plus, you need a $60,000 down payment.
Less than 16% of Pagosa Springs families fit that income category, and less than 38% of Archuleta County families. The $60,000 down payment also might be a stretch for some households.
Thus, the push by Town Community Development Director James Dickhoff, and County Development Director Pamela Flowers, and PSCD Director Emily Lashbrooke, to get the state government to classify us as a “rural resort” community, because that will allow us to apply for grants, to subsidize houses for households earning $115,000 and more per year.
Then we won’t need to strive so hard to create housing for the 69% of the workforce who are earning less than $100,000 a year and struggling with outrageous rents,…or living in their vehicles… or crashing on friends’ couches. Because that’s really, really hard to do… to help the lowest-paid workers in the community.
Because they are just too poor to buy $395,000 houses.
I noticed yesterday that the starting salary being advertised at the entrance to City Market has jumped up to $18,50 per hour. It was $18 per hour just a couple of weeks ago, and $17 an hour last year. So apparently, progress is being made on the wage end of things.
If you and your wife were starting new jobs at City Market, both working full-time, year round and making $18.50 per hour, your household’s total gross income (after taxes) would be about $79.000 per year. With that kind of income and if you had, say, $30,000 available for a down payment, you might be able to afford a house priced at $208,000. (This assumes, of course, you aren’t paying for childcare, or for student loans.)
Looking in the MLS, there appear to be six dwellings (mobile homes & studio condos) in that price range as of April 21. Just one little drawback. Your total monthly household income would be about $3,050. You will be paying $2,400 for your house, property taxes, and insurance — not including utilities.
That is to say, 78% of your income would be going towards your housing costs. After you pay your utilities, you might have a few pennies left over for food. If you’re lucky.
The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority specifies that a family should not be paying more than 30% of its income on total housing costs, including utilities.
But our Town and County are apparently eager to subsidize housing for households earning $115,000 or more per year.
Read Part Three, tomorrow…