• 2024 Update

    3-Year Workforce Housing Investment strategy

WORKFORCE HOUSING INVESTMENT STRATEGY 2024 UPDATES

The La Plata County 3-Year Workforce Housing Investment Strategy was originally published in 2022. While Significant achievements have been made in the last two years, the strategy was updated in 2024 to reflect the significant changes to the current funding environment. The strategy still prioritizes the critical steps necessary to maximize the creation of affordable housing for the local workforce across La Plata County. The overarching strategy addresses rental housing, homeownership, a concerted effort to initiate a large-scale housing development, preserving existing affordable housing options, and creating a local housing fund. For the plan to be successful, it requires coordinated action across jurisdictions and between the public and private sectors.

Overview Handout

Overarching Recommendations

La Plata County and its local governments need to be intentional about creating below-market housing wherever possible. We define below-market housing as all housing created and delivered to the consumer at prices below the existing market prices. Increasing housing supply may eventually soften prices, but markets have shifted in a new post-COVID world, and communities cannot assume that more housing necessarily means less expensive housing.

Furthermore, water scarcity and infrastructure capacity issues will eventually require local governments to prioritize what housing projects should have access to infrastructure. In 2022, the voters of Colorado approved Proposition 123 – a ballot measure authorizing the sStateto retain money from existing state tax revenue to create a permanent State Affordable Housing Fund. Opting into Proposition 123 enables local governments within and including La Plata County to access these affordable housing funding opportunities. To access Proposition 123 grant funding opportunities, local governments were required to “opt-in” and agree to a commitment to increasing their baseline affordable housing stock by 3% each year for three years (a total of 9% increase by the end of the 3rd year).

All four local governments voluntarily opted into Proposition 123 and committed to meeting the requirements, called a baseline commitment, of increasing their housing stock by 9% by the end of the third year.

The original strategy identified buydown programs as an effective way to create below-market housing; this strategy assumed significant funding would be available to the region because of the American Rescue Plan Act. Instead, the SStatedeployed funds in record time, and very few resources came to La Plata County. Since then, the strategy has shifted to preparing housing projects to be more competitive for state and federal resources, especially new funds under Proposition 123 programs, which are further described in the plan and are extremely competitive.

Since the plan was adopted in 2022, the Economic Development Alliance (EDA) launched the predevelopment fund referenced in the strategy, now called the Housing Catalyst Fund. This strategy has proven critical for identifying projects seeking state or federal funds and assisting them with predevelopment activities to prepare them for funding applications.

Prepared By:

Commissioned By:

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Proposition 123

In 2022, the voters of Colorado approved Proposition 123, authorizing the state to retain money from existing state tax revenue to create a permanent State Affordable Housing Fund. To access Proposition 123 funding opportunities, local governments were required to “opt-in” and agree to increase their baseline affordable housing stock by 3% each year for 3 years (a total of 9% increase by the end of the third year).

All four local governments represented in the Regional Housing Alliance voluntarily opted into Prop 123 and committed to meeting the requirements of increasing their housing stock by 9% by the end of the 3rd year.

Proposition 123 Funding Breakdown

Proposition 123 is divided into two main funding branches: the Affordable Housing Financing Fund and the Affordable Housing Support Fund.

Affordable Housing Financing Fund
CHFA – 60% of Prop 123 funding		Affordable Housing Support Fund
DOH – 40% of Prop 123 funding
Land Banking Program:
Grants and forgivable loans to acquire and preserve land for affordable housing development		Affordable Homeownership Program:
Down payment assistance and grants and loans for homeownership
Equity Program:
Equity investment to support the creation or preservation of low and middle-income multifamily rental development		Serving Persons Experiencing Homelessness:
Funding for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness
Concessionary Debt Program:
Loans to support the creation and preservation of affordable rental housing		Local Planning Capacity Development Program:
Grants to local governments to increase capacity of local government planning departments

A Local Housing Trust Fund

In May of 2022, the Regional Housing Alliance (RHA) of La Plata County confirmed their interest in assessing housing trust fund revenue sources over the following six months and putting forth recommendations to a broader community stakeholder group. With an award from DOLA to support capacity building and coordination with Alliance staff, the RHA launched a STEER Committee in 2024. This stakeholder group anticipates making a decision on a local initiative by the Fall of 2024 for implementation in 2025 or 2026.

Measuring Outcomes

To evaluate the success of the Three-Year Workforce Housing Investment Strategy, it is important to understand the baseline numbers of new and preserved affordable housing units expected over the next three years and estimate how adherence to this plan can increase the number of below-market units in the community.

Affordable Housing Project Tracker

LIHTC Rental

Projects (between 2022-2026)JurisdictionBelow-Market Units Project StatusAMI
Residences at Durango Durango120FeasibilityUnder 80%
Miramont Phase 2Durango66FeasibilityUnder 80%
Total New Units
(Goal of 170 for all jurisdictions)		186

Workforce Rental

Projects (between 2022-2026)JurisdictionBelow-Market Units Project StatusAMI
Durango CrossingsDurango45Feasibility80-120%
Gauge ApartmentsDurango14Completed80-120%
Gauge Apartments – Leasing for LocalsDurango15Completed80-120%
Gauge Apartments – Leasing for LocalsDurango15CompletedUnder 80%
Rock Creek Housing ProjectIgnacio25FundedUnder 80%
FLC Staff and Faculty ProjectDurango40Feasibility80-120%
Total New Units
(Goal of 170 for all jurisdictions)		154

Homeownership

Projects (between 2022-2026) JurisdictionBelow-Market UnitsProject StatusAMI
Cinnamon HeightsBayfield30Funded80-120%
Pine River CommonsBayfield66Funded80-120%
Durango CrossingsDurango30Feasibility80-120%
271 Twin Buttes AvenueDurango30Feasibility80-120%
Animas City Park Overlook TownhomesDurango5CompletedOver 120%
Animas City Park Overlook TownhomesDurango3CompletedN/A
Rock Creek Housing ProjectIgnacio21FundedOver 120%
HomesFund Homebuyers via MortgagesCountywide48
Total New Units
(Goal of 195 for all jurisdictions)		263

Mobile Home Park via Aquisition

Projects (between 2022-2026) JurisdictionBelow-Market UnitsProject StatusAMI
Animas ViewDurango120Completed
Westside and Triangle ParksLa Plata County72CompletedN/A
Total New Units192

Mobile Home Park Rehab

Projects (between 2022-2026) JurisdictionBelow-Market UnitsProject StatusAMI
Animas ViewDurango2FeasibilityUnder 80%
Westside and Triangle ParksTBD107FeasibilityN/A
Total New Units109

2024 Affordable Housing Project Totals

Total New Units/Mortgages
(Goal of 715 for all jurisdictions)		603
Total Units Preserved
(Goal of 120 for all jurisdictions)		192

Although many projects moved forward over the last two years they have not begun the final packaging for unit development. It is still anticipated that for-sale housing will need at least $200,000 in subsidy per unit or will have to use density or creative unit types to hit price points for the local workforce. According to the tracker; approximately 147 for-sale units are in process and could need as much as $29,400,00 in subsidy. The rental housing pipeline also needs subsidies and assumes an average gap of $75,000 a unit; the rental project pipeline suggests a gap amount of $8,250,000 for all rental housing development. Mobile Home Park redevelopment is in early stages but will likely need $20 million or more over the next decade.

Full Report

This page contains a high-level overview of the Workforce Housing Investment Strategy updates. The original strategy was created in 2022 and was updated by Project Moxie in the spring of 2024 by soliciting feedback from partner agencies and local governments regarding updates to their strategies and specific housing developments. The team also researched new funding streams at the state level, such as Proposition 123, and original gap amounts have likely increased between 25-40% based on national trends regarding interest rates and building cost increases over the last few years. The team updated actual outcomes to the projected outcomes above and deleted strategies that were not successful or implemented. The community has made significant progress, but it has been slower, given building costs and interest rates over the last two years.