TELLURIDE \u2013 Business is booming in Telluride, with a major Hollywood production coming to the area and construction cranking as more people want to call the town home. But the box canyon can only fit so many people, and with such high demand, the rental housing market for seasonal winter employees is expensive and highly competitive.<\/p>\n
Applicants to Shandoka and Village Court Apartments \u2013 the area\u2019s two biggest affordable housing complexes, with about 350 combined housing units \u2013 are being told not to expect openings until next spring, said San Miguel Regional Housing Authority Executive Director Shirley Diaz.<\/p>\n
The Telluride Ski Resort, the area\u2019s largest employer, has begun to purchase or lease private houses for seasonal employees because their 146-unit housing project for seasonal employees, Big Billie\u2019s Apartments, is already full.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve also offered all residents of Big Billie\u2019s the option of sharing their unit with incoming winter workers, according to Telski spokesperson Pepper Raper, although she said few people so far have opted to split their studio and kitchenette with another person.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a housing crunch before. 2003-2007 was tight, but it\u2019s never been this bad,\u201d Raper said. \u201cWe lose employees every day because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Telski has purchased or leased three properties so far: one in Mountain Village, one in Ilium and another in Fairway Four. Between the three houses, there are eight new bedrooms, and Raper said they might end up as double-occupancy rooms.<\/p>\n
BootDoctors, another of the area\u2019s largest employers during the winter ski season, considered buying a house in Norwood for their employees. But owners Bob and Penelope Gleason decided against it over concerns about the environmental impact of employees whose work hours don\u2019t align with the public transportation schedule having to make the roughly 30-mile drive every day for work.<\/p>\n
Plus, Penelope Gleason said, it\u2019s hard enough being a small business owner. Adding landlord responsibilities on top of that would be difficult.<\/p>\n
The company has had three winter employees back out of jobs so far because they couldn\u2019t find housing, Gleason said. And some recurring employees from previous years who were supposed to return this winter have told her they\u2019re going elsewhere for the same reason.<\/p>\n
The most recent regional housing needs assessment, published in September 2011, indicates that there are 1.82 jobs for every one housing unit in Telluride.<\/p>\n
Thirty percent of the workforce is imported from surrounding communities like Norwood, Montrose, Ophir, Ilium, Placerville and Sawpit, according to the survey.<\/p>\n
Seventy percent of survey respondents said the reason they commute to jobs in Telluride but live elsewhere was the lack of affordable local housing, according to the survey.<\/p>\n
A majority of survey respondents \u2013 50.5 percent \u2013 said that housing was one of the more serious issues facing Telluride. Just over 20 percent of respondents in Telluride said it was the most critical issue facing the town.<\/p>\n
Penelope Gleason said she wants to see a regional master plan for housing that doesn\u2019t rely heavily on commuting, which she said impacts the culture as well as the environment of the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally at this point we are all one community and we need to address this as one community,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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