Many households in Durango face the frustrating problem of earning too little or too much income to qualify for subsidized housing programs. But the city of Durango’s Housing Innovation Division has created a new program to help alleviate those struggles.
People and families who find themselves stuck outside income thresholds are also known as “the missing middle.” They are vital members of the workforce – teachers in charge of classrooms and police officers patrolling city streets. Now, they are the targets of the Housing Innovation Division’s new rental subsidy program.
The city of Durango opened applications at 10 a.m. Thursday for the rental subsidy program called “Leasing for Locals” that will bring “30 new multifamily below-market rentals to the local workforce,” according to a city news release. Prospective tenants have until Nov. 7 to apply for the program.
The city partnered with the Gauge Apartments at 1275 Escalante Drive behind Home Depot to implement the new rental program.
The program is being funded by about $775,000 of the $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding the city dedicated to housing initiatives, Durango Housing Innovation Manager Eva Henson said.
She said “Leasing for Locals” targets a larger housing spectrum than previous city efforts and creates 30 one-, two- and three-bedroom units in Building C at the Gauge Apartments.
Specifically, the program has secured six one-bedroom units, six three-bedroom units and 18 two-bedroom units, making up all of Building C’s available units.
“That’s a lot of the comments we get,” Henson said. “‘Why can’t you do bigger units?’ So we really hit the mark with one building. … We know our workforce earns, you know, less than 100% AMI, and so this program is really built for our workforce.”
Before it launched the new rental subsidy program, the city secured 14 rent-restricted units in the Gauge Apartments targeting people at or below specific income thresholds per household size and unit type.
What “Leasing for Locals” has done differently is stabilize rent rates at between 60% area median income for half of the Gauge Apartments’ Building C, or 15 units. The program also stabilized rent rates at 80% AMI for the other half of units in Building C.
The twist is prospective renters for the former 15 units can earn up to 80% AMI and still qualify. Likewise, prospective renters for the latter 15 units can earn up to 100% AMI and qualify, Henson said.
Simply put, rental rates at the Gauge Apartments for wage earners between 60% and 80% AMI will be:
- $994 for a one-bedroom unit (with three units available).
- $1,199 for a two-bedroom unit (with nine units available).
- $1,388 for a three-bedroom unit (with three units available).
For wage earners between 80% and 100% AMI, rental rates at the Gauge Apartments will be:
- $1,384 for a one-bedroom unit (with three units available).
- $1,667 for a two-bedroom unit (with nine units available).
- $1,929 for a three-bedroom unit (with three units available).
“We did (that) because a lot of households get compressed, where it’s like, ‘I don’t make quite enough, or I make just slightly too much … This program does a range from 60% to 100% AMI in one at-scale project so that we are stabilizing those rents to be, you know, achievable at affordable pricing,” Henson said.
Between the new “Leasing for Locals” program and the Residences at Durango development converting the former Best Western Inn & Suites on U.S. Highway 160 West, the city is increasing its housing inventory for a wide range of income earners.
Workers earning approximately 30% to 60% AMI will have housing opportunities at the former Best Western, and workers earning 60% to 100% AMI will have opportunities at the Gauge Apartments.
“I’m so excited to get it live because this is what the workforce needs,” Henson said. “We have to bridge that disparity.”
And bridging disparity is difficult, she said. Developers are grappling with high interest rates by borrowing money to build new projects, and they have to make enough money on those projects to pay off their debts and pay back their investors.
Henson said it’s “causing even more havoc” on affordability and attainable housing “that would be traditionally for workforce.”
“So we strategically and (with innovation) created this program to target it and bridge it down,” she said.
She said the new rental subsidy program is an opportunity to use current housing stock to address “the missing middle’s” needs.
The program is on a two-year test track. Henson said the Housing Innovation Division might be able to creatively extend the program with another developer, but for now it’s limited to stabilized rents at the Gauge Apartments.
Extending the rental subsidy program further would require dedicated funding to continue it in the future and could be considered in 2025, she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
