Gunnison Valley Housing Authority releases draft housing needs assessment

Meeting to discuss results in Crested Butte this Tuesday

by Crystal Kotowski

The Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority recently released its detailed 92-page Gunnison Valley Housing Needs Assessment. Staff presented the main findings last week in Gunnison and will present in Crested Butte this Tuesday, November 29 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Center for the Arts.

The report quantifies current and future housing needs in the Gunnison Valley and outlines challenges, barriers and strategy recommendations, with a thorough appendix of statistics derived from the assessment to boot. It answers questions such as how much, what type and at which price points housing is needed to support local residents.

Key findings include: rental vacancies are currently lower than one percent; estimated catch up and keep up needs estimate that 960 more housing units are needed in total by 2020; nearly 70 percent of employers indicated that the availability of affordable housing for the workforce is a serious or the most critical problem in the region, with approximately 360 jobs unfilled as of August.

“The findings were not significantly surprising,” said Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority executive director, Karl Fulmer. “Admittedly, there was a bit of ‘sticker shock’ when we saw the sheer number of units needed to adequately house our area’s residents and workforce. The only way to make a significant dent in this number is to build public-private partnerships throughout the valley. In some ways, local planning departments can play a pivotal role in adopting policies that promote the development of needed housing types described in the Needs Assessment.”

About 30 people attended the presentation in Gunnison, many of whom were local decision makers or development representatives in the south valley area, according to Fulmer.

“The main concerns were really regarding the best ways to go about making a dent in the number of housing units needed to bring the market into balance,” he explained. “The main item discussed was getting a concerted effort by all players involved—the local government, the Housing Authority and the private development sector.”

Two of the consultants who worked on the Housing Needs Assessment will present a very detailed Powerpoint in Crested Butte on Tuesday. Additionally, a question and answer session will conclude the meeting.

“We have much work to do in our valley in order to reduce the significance housing plays in the lives of our residents, but also in the hiring practices of our businesses. On the bright side, Melanie Reese (one of the consultants contracted to work on the housing assessment) stated that we have many more opportunities for development than other resort communities in Colorado. Aspen, Telluride, and others often need thousands of units built but simply do not possess the development potential of the Gunnison River Valley,” Fulmer concluded.

The public is welcome and encouraged to attend the meeting on Tuesday.