Mountain Towns Slow To Provide Affordable Housing
FRISCO, Colo. (CBS4)- Mountain towns are working to keep up with a growing problem in Colorado- lack of affordable housing.
"The town has said, 'Okay, what we have to do is we've got to have a number of different strategies.' One of them is building these workforce housing," said City of Breckenridge spokeswoman Kim Dykstra.
Low income earners typically have few options when it comes to affordable housing in mountain communities.
"About 10 years ago the voters actually passed a tax in order to start funding some projects that we have been working really hard on this for a number of years," said Summit County Planning Director Don Reimer.
As the rental market continues to boom, it puts many residents out of the running for housing.
"What we have done has not really kept up with the rental market," said Dykstra.
"Over the past several years throughout the county there has been about 1,800 deed-restricted units that are being created throughout the county but that's just a drop in the bucket," said Reimer.
Hundreds of affordable units are under construction or in the planning phases.
"Within the next five years, we're anticipating that we'll need somewhere in the order of 1,000 rental units and up to 800 or so ownership units county-wide," said Reimer.
"It's not just the town or the county or the state, what are we going to all do together?" said Dykstra.
Another hurdle to building is the space to build.
