Checking her email inbox one recent afternoon, Emily Lashbrooke said she noticed a message with an all-too familiar story: A full-time employee living in Pagosa Springs was on the brink of leaving the area for lack of affordable housing.
“They’ve been living with family but they’ve outworn their welcome, and they can’t buy a house yet,” recalled Lashbrooke, executive director of the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC). “This keeps happening more and more.”
During the PSCDC’s regular board meeting on Oct. 9, Lashbrooke explained her office was able to find an affordable rental for the employee, but indicated that rising home costs and limited vacancies are forcing Archuleta County workers to make tough decisions about where to live — and under what conditions.
“There are some apartment buildings that are being rented right now — they’re two-bedroom apartments — and we have five people living in them because they can’t afford to live any other way,” Lashbrooke told the board, and described ongoing efforts by the PSCDC to meet the housing needs and realities in Archuleta County.
Construction on the 10 homes the PSCDC is currently building for local workforce families and individuals is progressing, Lashbrooke told the board, with sites in development in the Trails and Chris Mountain subdivisions.
Homes on Lancer Court and Home Court, Ranger Park Drive and Lassen Drive were at various stages of completion, but all ready for winter weather, she reported.
As for who gets to live in them, Lashbrooke explained she and her team are working with 39 potential homebuyers and confident eight of those will be ready to join a lottery to purchase the income-restricted homes in early November.
The PSCDC expects the first owners to be occupying their new homes by early January 2025, Lashbrooke noted.
Prices for the homes, ranging from $328,000 for a two-bedroom to $389,000 for a three-bedroom with a two-car garage, are still below local market trends.
So far in 2024, the average sales price of two- and three-bedroom homes under 1,500 square feet and on less than one acre in Archuleta County is $467,468 — up from $450,175 in 2023, according to data provided by the Pagosa Springs Area Association of Realtors.
‘Throwing a dart at a board’
After a summer auction of 11 county-owned land parcels failed to return any acceptable bids, Lashbrooke noted she and Habitat for Humanity sensed an opportunity.
The parcels, located on Bonita Court, range from 0.1 to 0.17 of an acre, and had a reserve price of $18,350.
The Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners voted in September to reject the bids they received for the parcels when County Attorney Todd Weaver reported that none reached the reserve.
Hearing that, Lashbrooke relayed she and partners at Habitat for Humanity began to wonder, “What if we could use government money to buy government property, and everybody could win?”
To explore that option, Lashbrooke said she submitted a letter of intent to purchase the properties at the minimum price using funds available through the land banking provisions of Proposition 123, which offers funding to local governments and nonprofits to acquire land specifically for affordable housing development.
“We’re throwing a dart at the board,” Lashbrooke said of the effort, but expressed hope that it may one day put “more affordable housing into play.”
“We don’t know if this will grow legs or go anywhere,” she said. “If we are approved … then we’ll come back to this board with a resolution to be able to apply for that funding.”
Surveying the need
A tri-agency effort to collect a larger picture of the housing needs in Archuleta County will soon be ready to roll out, according to the PSCDC.
The housing needs assessment survey, administered by the ECOnorthwest consulting firm and paid for using grant funding awarded to the county, the Town of Pagosa Springs and the PSCDC, will soon be available for local residents and businesses to complete.
“It’s going to give us a lot of direction going forward,” said Jeff Sams, multi-jurisdictional housing coordinator.
Sams and Lashbrooke explained the survey will help the PSCDC and its partners further grasp the housing needs in the area and plan for the future.
“We really need to drill down some of the housing needs that we have in this community,” Lashbrooke said, adding the final results from the study are expected in mid-January.
garrett@pagosasun.com
