Affordable housing and workforce development took center stage at Thursday’s Durango Chamber of Commerce Eggs & Issues forum, where a Colorado House District 59 candidate and his opponent’s campaign manager squared off on key issues shaping the region's future.
Democratic candidate Katie Stewart was unable to attend the forum because of an undisclosed medical issue. In her place, campaign manager Maggie Mixer addressed questions from the chamber.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to Katie,” said her opponent, Republican candidate Clark Craig. “We hope for a speedy recovery. She's part of our community, and we wish her and her family the very best.”
Led by chamber board President Pat Vaughn and Chief Operations Officer Kim Oyler, Craig and Mixer answered questions pertaining to Southwest Colorado’s business community at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Durango.
Both Stewart and Craig have deep Southwest Colorado roots. Stewart serves on the Durango School District 9-R Board of Education while Craig serves as the mayor of Ignacio and owns Meadow Brook Mobile Home Park with his wife.
Stewart is a fourth generation Durangoan and Clark attended Durango High School during the 1970s.
Questions still loom as to how Southwest Colorado can fix issues involving labor shortages, cost of living and workforce development.
In the Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado's 2024 economic outlook report, La Plata County’s unemployment rate sat at 2.6%, while neighboring Archuleta County had a rate of 2.9%, and Montezuma County stood at 3.2%.
In contrast, all of three counties had unemployment rates exceeding 6% in 2020.
Nationally, unemployment rates had risen to 4.3% last month and was trending upward, according to The Wall Street Journal.
When asked about labor shortages, both Craig and Mixer, standing in for Stewart, pointed the finger at Southwest Colorado's housing dilemma. Since 2020, limited housing inventory and elevated prices associated with high-interest rates and lack of price competition, has plagued La Plata County.
Without access to affordable living, employers are left searching for answers to help fill unoccupied positions.
“We've seen the communities in Colorado get hollowed out by the loss of small businesses, and that's something that Katie really doesn't want to happen here,” Mixer said.
Craig noted that the aging population in Southwest Colorado contributes to labor shortages.
“They're saying that in the next few years, the average age in Western Slope Colorado, 50% of us will be 60 years and older,” Craig said
He said the region is exporting young talent much more quickly than it can import it. Officials in La Plata County's education and business sectors have been actively working to develop a strong young professional workforce.
“We've been talking with the health care system, maybe providing some incentives through college and some grants to make sure that they come back to rural areas in need,” Craig said.
Mixer was quick to highlight Durango School District 9-R's workforce development initiatives, particularly in the areas of career and technical education.
“Katie really understands the value of education, and that doesn't just mean education in the classroom, and that doesn't just mean education for children, K-12. That also means on job training, apprenticeships and things like that for people throughout their careers,” Mixer said.
Craig praised the efforts of the Regional Housing Alliance and the La Plata Economic Development Alliance, of which he is a member of both, for their work on affordable housing. He cited Ignacio’s Rock Creek housing development and Durango’s Best Western conversion project as prime examples of how the community can successfully create affordable housing.
“We’ve got to take a look at that rental market and the availability of that,” Craig said.
He added that recent legislative policies like Colorado’s construction defects laws are hurting developers’ ability to build rental units. He said developers are refusing to build townhomes in Colorado for fear of litigious action.
“The law has good intentions. We're trying to protect consumers. I understand that,” Craig said. “But it's become a litigious thing where the lawyers are actually getting the funds, and those funds aren't making it back to the consumers that have the problems.”
A lack of affordable housing has led to many Coloradans, especially in the younger demographics, to leave the state. According to a recent survey conducted by the Colorado Polling Institute, 50% of the state’s residents have left or are considering leaving because of housing costs.
“We definitely need public-private partnerships to make sure that developers can work with local government to find funding to support building housing that will be accessible to our workforce,” Mixer said.
Mixer highlighted Durango’s cooperative mobile home parks as a potential solution for workforce housing. In 2022, residents at Westside Mobile Home Park were successfully able to purchase the mobile home park from its landlord, IQ Mobile Homes, with the help of Elevation Community Land Trust.
“They are really some of the first of their kind, and have really opened up opportunities for the people in those parks to be able to own their homes, and have a say in how the park is run,” Mixer said.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
