EDITORIAL: Roadmap to an Affordable Future? Part Two

Read Part One

I left off Part One with a circular graphic that Pagosa Housing Partners had included in their new report, “Roadmap to Affordable Housing, 2019-2025,” recently submitted to the Pagosa Springs Town Council.

At the top of the image, we saw the graphic’s title:

“Investment in Housing Choices”

Above the words, we see a simplified little graphic. On the left, in dark blue, a couple of apartment buildings, and on the right, in olive green, a couple of single-family homes. Maybe zero-lot-line town homes?

We will note that Archuleta County has very few apartment buildings. More about that in a moment.

When PHP did their survey of Archuleta County residents last summer, and asked them what type of housing would best meet their needs, the range of responses produced a chart that looked like this:

“Single Family Home” was by far the “most preferred” option, as shown by the light blue color coding… with “Condo/Townhome” as the second most popular option, overall.

Every community has its own particular housing market, based on its own particular history and economy. The American Dream, however, has long been focused on “The Single Family Home with a 30-Year Mortgage” as the ideal housing situation. My parents embraced that Dream when I was a child, growing up in the 1950s, and it still seems the predominant housing preference for many Americans.

Especially, perhaps, it’s the type of housing imagined by the government leaders and bureaucrats who define our national and local housing policies.

Here in Archuleta County, for example, we have numerous government rules and zoning regulations that discourage the construction of multi-family housing — and promote single family development.

Which is not suggest that “The Single Family Home With a 30-Year Mortgage” is in any way attainable, for most working class folks, in Archuleta County in 2019. But it remains the Dream… as we saw in the PHP graphic, above.

But let’s look closer:

Yes, many respondents picked “Single Family Home” as their Number One choice.  But that’s not the full story… because 30 percent of the respondents did not choose “Single Family Home” as their Number One Choice. That’s nearly one-in-three households.

Also worth noting: 21 percent of respondents picked “Place to Park my RV/Tiny Home” as their first or second choice — and 25 percent picked “Condo/Townhome” as their first or second choice.

Disclaimer: I helped design this PHP survey last summer, and I believe the overall survey results have helped us better understand our local housing crisis. At the very least, the survey attached some numbers to the problem that we didn’t have previously.

But a survey question that asks, simply, “My Housing Needs would be met by housing type…” and then gives me six simple choices, can produce rather inaccurate results. A better way to ask this question is to include the price a worker might be able to pay, for said housing:

“My Housing Needs would be met by housing type and housing cost…“

RANK YOUR PREFERENCES

• Rented bedroom, shared in someone’s else’s house, $600 a month
• Rented one-bedroom apartment, $800 a month
• Rented two-bedroom apartment, $1,000 a month
• Rented two-bedroom house, $1,500 a month
• Rented three-bedroom house, $2,000 a month
• Purchased two-bedroom house, $2,000 a month (verify that you can qualify for the mortgage)
• Purchased three-bedroom house, $2,500 a month (verify that you can qualify for the mortgage)
• None of the above will meet my budget. I’m moving back to Tulsa.

When I last checked the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it appeared that about 40 percent of our local workforce is employed in the “Retail, Leisure and Hospitality” sector of the Archuleta County economy. The BLS suggested that the average weekly wage for those workers, here in Pagosa, was about $404 a week.

Or, about $1,700 a month.

Based on my recent research into our housing crisis, the housing prices I inserted into my fictional questions, above, are fairly accurate reflections of actual housing costs here in Archuleta County. The only reasonable option for a typical single mom, with one child, working in the retail-leisure-hospitality sector, are the ones that might leave her with enough money for food, childcare, and other necessities:

• Rented bedroom, shared in someone’s else’s house, $600 a month
• Rented one-bedroom apartment, $800 a month
• Rented two-bedroom apartment, $1,000 a month

Or else, the other option:

• None of the above will meet my budget. I’m moving back to Tulsa.

The dynamics of Pagosa Springs economy, and the rules and regulations promulgated by our local governments, have discouraged the construction of one- and two-bedroom apartments. The construction industry has, for the past 20 years, been focused on retirement homes and ‘second homes’ — stick-built single family homes, unavailable to our lowest-paid workers.

Do we have a plan for the future? From the “Roadmap to Affordable Housing”:

This Plan will comprehensively address workforce-housing needs through a combination of strategies on a near, mid- and long-term basis. In this chapter, the summary of proposed timeline, responsibilities and tasks is provided. As each initiative commences, the team will establish a comprehensive scope of work and project plan.

Overall, the strategies PHP recommends are:

• Utilize Town and County owned land for potential housing development.
• Offer incentives and develop policies to expand the diversity of housing choices available for local residents and workforce.
• Create opportunities and prepare renters and homebuyers for success.
• Retain and transition non-conforming homes to legal, safe status.
• Engage employers, nonprofits and community in workforce housing solutions.
• Require affordable and workforce housing to be produced as part of new residential developments as the community grows.

Details regarding the tools recommended in the next five years are included in the ‘Tools’ chapter.

Is this a plan that can truly address our current crisis?

Read Part Three…