Staff members and educators have begun moving into Durango School District’s new low-cost workforce housing at Lightner Creek Village, marking the first phase of an effort meant to recruit and retain employees in Durango’s out-of-reach housing market.
The district purchased the 35 units, located at 20310 U.S. Highway 160, for $10 million in September with money from the $150 million 2024 Investing in Our Schools Bond.
Twenty-eight employees will have moved into the units by the end of this summer, said district spokeswoman Karla Sluis. Fifteen moved in between the end of May and June, five more moved in July 1, and eight more will move in before school starts in August. The remaining seven spots will be used as a “recruitment and retainment tool” offered to new hires, Sluis said.
Julianne Fielder, a kindergarten teacher at Riverview Elementary School, moved in July 1. She’s paying around $1,050 per month for her one-bedroom unit, plus $30 per month for pet rent for her two cats, and about $100 for a utilities bundle that includes water, sewer, trash and internet. That shakes out to about $300 less than she was paying for her previous living situation.
Sluis said rental rates for the workforce units span five categories and are determined by employee and rental type, but that rent generally ranges from $750 per month for a studio to $1,950 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit – several hundred less than average Durango rental rates, according to Apartments.com.
Fielder said having an in-unit washer and dryer and all-new kitchen appliances, including a dishwasher – amenities she did not have in her previous studio apartment – has already made a big difference in her day-to-day life.
“Being 37, (the apartment) just makes me feel a little bit more like I have the space to be an adult,” she said.
Before securing the low-cost district housing unit, Fielder said she was considering leaving her role and moving out of state.
“I was really unsure of what to do,” she said. “I just couldn’t find anything that wouldn’t make me feel like I was living paycheck to paycheck. So, this just was incredible.”
The security that extra $300 per month adds makes Fielder feel more able to focus on her work, she said.
“I’m a kindergarten teacher … and you have to be 100% when you show up,” she said. “So, being able to get a good night’s sleep, and knowing that you have food in the fridge, and all those types of things, (means) you can show up being 100% … That’s a major thing.”
Fielder said she was initially ambivalent about her neighbors doubling as her co-workers; but her experience across her first few days in the building have soothed those worries.
“I actually feel really comforted knowing that we’re kind of all like-minded,” she said.
Autumn Green, a substitute coordinator in human resources with the district, said moving into a studio at Lightner Creek will save her around $200 in rent each month and an estimated $200 more in gas now that she no longer has to commute from her previous living situation in Forest Lakes.
Green, who is also a volunteer with the district housing committee, which formed a year ago to advise the Board of Education on workforce housing rental rates, qualification criteria and tenant prioritization, has been trying to save up to buy a home. She said the affordable rate of the district studio will allow her to achieve that goal much earlier than planned.
Staff members who applied to move into district housing were chosen through a lottery system – but Fielder said it was a less stressful process than she was anticipating, and that most applicants were able to secure a spot.
Some district employees have expressed a desire for workforce housing that can better accommodate families and dogs – which the one- to two-bedroom, yard-less Lightner Creek apartments generally do not.
“I think (the workforce housing) is fantastic for new teachers, but old teachers don’t want to live in an apartment complex – they want to have a yard, they want to feel like they’re settled,” said longtime district math teacher Lindsay Hayden in an interview with the Herald during staff pay negotiations in May. “We can keep the new teachers by having those things, because they are willing to live in apartments, and they’re already going to do that anyways – but you get to the established teachers that might want to buy a home, and that doesn’t help us.”
The district and the Board of Education began investigating additional workforce housing sites in March, but an original property sale – which would have offered townhomes with up to three bedrooms, along with yards and garages – fell through after concerns surrounding developer debt arose.
Two new potential properties were identified by the board in late May; one presented by Durango-based company Reynolds Ash + Associates at 1720 Florida Road, and another presented by developer Agave at 364 East 32nd St.
Both options would offer townhome units with up to three bedrooms, but neither property would include yards nor garages, Chris Coleman, chief operation officer, said.
The board had yet to make an official purchasing decision about either property as of its most recent June 23 meeting.
Fielder said she’s aware that some district employees and residents have voiced criticisms about the workforce housing initiative, and urged people to keep an open mind.
“I know there’s been a lot of backlash,” she said. “Everybody has a different story of why this means a lot to them, and I think that that’s just really important to think about before making an assumption.”
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