{"id":25888,"date":"2024-08-30T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-area-officials-tell-hickenlooper-housing-partnership-is-working-well-but-federal-support-needed\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:29:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:29:30","slug":"durango-area-officials-tell-hickenlooper-housing-partnership-is-working-well-but-federal-support-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-area-officials-tell-hickenlooper-housing-partnership-is-working-well-but-federal-support-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango-area officials tell Hickenlooper housing partnership is working well, but federal support needed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), center, talks with Durango City Councilor member Dave Woodruff and Durango Mayor Jessika Buell on Thursday while touring Residences at Durango, the former Best Western motel site on U.S. Highway 160 in west Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A major throughline during U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper\u2019s tour of the construction site of the Residences at Durango was obvious: Community partnerships and regional collaborations are key to success.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper stopped in Durango on Thursday after a town hall in Cortez on Wednesday to check on projects he helped secure federal congressionally directed funding for, including $1.3 million for the University of Colorado College of Nursing and Fort Lewis College Collaborative\u2019s new nursing training facility<\/a>; $3 million for the Best Western motel conversion<\/a> of 72 units into a 120-unit low-income housing community in Durango; and another $3 million for the town of Ignacio\u2019s Rock Creek affordable housing project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He met with health care CEOs and leaders at FLC, who spoke to area health care successes, needs and opportunities. He then visited the Residences at Durango, followed by a meeting with area stakeholders from La Plata and Montezuma counties.<\/p>\n

Regional leaders stressed the importance of working together to tackle the housing crisis.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) toured the Residences at Durango at 21382 U.S. Highway 160 west, the former Best Western motel, as construction continues on the low-income housing project. Afterward, he attended a meeting between La Plata and Montezuma county officials and Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio stakeholders to discuss housing successes and needs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Never worked better together than now<\/div>\n

Regional Housing Alliance of La Plata County Board Chairman Pat Vaughn said of his 21 years in the La Plata County area, he has never seen the county or the city of Durango work as well together as they are right now.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the two governments have never given as much recognition to the towns of Bayfield and Ignacio as they currently do.<\/p>\n

He credited the RHA for running its operations between the county, Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio despite political differences present in each jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same appetite for some level of bipartisan, nonpartisan engagement on this stuff, it\u2019s been there for 30 years,\u201d Hickenlooper said.<\/p>\n

He said if counties and municipalities can \u201cput down their weapons,\u201d meet each other at the table and work toward common goals, \u201cthat\u2019s where the magic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael French, La Plata County Economic Development Alliance\u2019s former executive director who currently works with the city on housing and tourism, also said recent successes are because of a collaborative approach to housing between the county and municipalities.<\/p>\n

Housing built in Bayfield benefits Ignacio, Durango and the county, and vice versa, he said. Treating money put toward housing as collective money is viable strategy, and a different mindset from what is often practiced. And RHA is the binding force holding the collaborative effort together.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), looks over blueprints with TWG Construction superintendent Neal Wagoner for the Residences at Durango project that is the former Best Western motel on U.S. Highway 160 in west Durango on Thursday. The motel is being renovated along with additional townhomes being built at the site for workforce housing. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
High building costs, more collaboration<\/div>\n

FLC Chief Financial Officer Samantha Gallagher said the college is exploring acquiring more off-campus housing for students. On-campus housing renovations and building costs have doubled over the past four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat typically would have cost us $40 million four years ago to replace an apartment building is now in the neighborhood of $78 (million) to $80 million,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to get a little bit more creative with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the college has invested $1 million into a mortgage assistance program for faculty and staff, and so far it has provided $70,000 in down payment assistance for five employees in partnership with HomesFund, an area mortgage assistance nonprofit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have been working with developers to bring down costs for our employees, exploring opportunities to act as the construction lender, potentially to buy down that interest rate, because as we all know, interest rates are extremely high right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

FLC is also partnering with entities such as Durango School District 9-R, Project Moxie and MGL to provide employees rental opportunities at below-market rates.<\/p>\n

Attendees at the regional stakeholder meeting with Hickenlooper said while local collaborations are an important force, state and federal governments are also partners with roles to play.<\/p>\n

French said federal dollars are used differently in rural America and rural Colorado, such as in Durango, than they are along the Front Range, and each community has slightly different needs.<\/p>\n

He said a Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant to commission a three-year strategic workforce housing investment strategy, published in 2022 through the La Plata Economic Development Alliance, gave the county and municipalities a script to follow to meet their Proposition 123 commitments to increase their housing inventories by 3% over the next three years.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) toured Residences at Durango, the former Best Western motel on west U.S. Highway 160 in Durango, as construction continues on the low-income housing project. The main motel building conversion is projected to be completed in November, with additional rental units expected to be completed in April 2025. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The plan gave the governments a script to increase available affordable housing by 108 units and 184 units for the county and Durango, respectively, and by 14 units each for Bayfield and Ignacio, per the Proposition 123 commitment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a region that is on the same page strategically and then behaves collectively, the dollars go a lot further,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The workforce housing investment strategy includes a catalyst fund to jump-start workforce housing projects across the county. The Durango Heral<\/em>d reported last week the catalyst fund awarded $134,000 to area workforce housing project<\/a>s in its third round of funding.<\/p>\n

Federal policies needed<\/div>\n

La Plata County Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton said federal policies are needed not just for the county, but for the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working as hard as we can. You know, we\u2019re spending what we can. We\u2019re seeking what we can,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Land use, infrastructure and water in the context of climate change and sustainability need policy support. Even getting water companies funded to put residents on water taps is challenging, she said.<\/p>\n

Vaughn said the state of Colorado has been \u201cdismal\u201d in addressing construction defect reforms for over two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cA builder friend of mine on the Front Range says the Legislature and the lobby has robbed a generation of equity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Durango Mayor Jessika Buell watch a new apartment building being constructed at the Residences at Durango, the former Best Western motel on U.S. Highway 160 in west Durango. Hickenlooper told The Durango Herald the economy is failing American citizens, many of whom are spending too much on housing. He said higher wages are needed, and it might take efforts by local, county, state and federal governments to make it happen. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u2018Pay people more,\u2019 Hickenlooper says<\/div>\n

Hickenlooper told The Durango<\/em> Herald<\/em> the housing crisis isn\u2019t just an American problem. It\u2019s affecting countries across the world. At least part of the solution is to pay workers higher wages, he said.<\/p>\n

If a worker is spending more than 30% of their wages on housing, he or she is paying too much money, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re paying that much, you\u2019re falling behind in your life. That means we as an economy \u2026 are failing our citizens,\u201d he said. \u201cPay people more, find ways that we can help more people. In other words, pick up the tabs for some of the things that everybody pays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper said one way to convince employers to pay workers higher wages is to convey that everyone will pay for it one way or another.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to pay for it anyway, one way or the other, and we\u2019re better off paying people more and figuring out ways to otherwise subsidize their health care,\u201d he said. \u201cFor instance, the classic example of their child care. The costs that a working family has to endure to put a hundred bucks in the bank at the end of every month, is extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said \u201ca successful community\u201d is one where people can afford to live and work there.<\/p>\n

He suggested there should be some sort of program where local, county, state and federal governments are chipping in.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem with child care, he said, is people working within child care aren\u2019t paid high enough living wages. Child care services are too expensive for the people and families who need them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a clear sign of structural dysfunction, and that\u2019s where the government needs to step in by helping child care workers earn a little more money and helping families pay a little less for services, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of what I like in Washington is finding things like that should be nonpartisan,\u201d he said. \u201cThis notion that the free market is endless and needs no government help, when you look at some of the issues we\u2019re facing, that\u2019s because we\u2019ve let it sit too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. senator says workers need higher wages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,28,61,453,1651],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-housing-and-urban-planning","tag-sen-john-hickenlooper"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79142,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25888\/revisions\/79142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25888"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}