Larimer County staff: draft housing plan sets 30-unit affordable housing target through 2029

Larimer County commissioners heard Monday that the county has a shortage of 9,716 rental units for households earning below half the area median income, as staff outlined a draft housing plan that goes to public comment Nov. 3 through Dec. 3 ahead of a Dec. 7 adoption hearing.

Staff said the timeline was scheduled based on assumptions. If there is robust community engagement and more comment about changes, the timeline can move, staff said, and the official deadline is another year away.

The draft plan would be posted on Larimer Engage for 30 days of comment. If commissioners adopt it Dec. 7, the county would submit it to DOLA by the end of the year for acceptance.

Staff outlined the need behind the plan. The county needs 17,897 housing units by 2035 to catch up with and keep pace with demand, and 1,428 of them in unincorporated Larimer County, counting both rental and homeownership units.

The 1,428 figure covers all housing, not only low-income housing, staff said. The market is expected to supply some of those units, and the county's focus is on units for households below 50% of area median income, staff said.

Staff said the county achieved its Proposition 123 commitment in the first cycle and has committed to the 2027 through 2029 cycle. Staff said the commitment is to increase the county's affordable housing stock by 30 units, a 3% increase that can include rental and homeownership units.

New legislation lowered the target from 112 units in the previous cycle and added ways to earn credit through partnerships, staff said. Developments that use private activity bonds awarded by the county can count toward the credit, staff said.

Apartment buildings of 40 units are unlikely in the unincorporated county, a staff member told commissioners. Infrastructure and water availability limit development there, and "we're not going to see 40-unit apartment buildings built in unincorporated," the staff member said, except possibly in specific parts of growth management areas with municipal partners. The staff member said the county's focus there would be more on naturally occurring housing, maybe duplexes.

Renters carry much of the cost pressure. Staff said housing costs above 50% of household income count as severely cost-burdened, and that 28% of the renters in the 54% cost-burdened figure were severely cost-burdened.

The draft plan's main recommendations include:

• expanding rental assistance when local funding allows
• preserving properties that serve low- and moderate-income households, particularly naturally occurring affordable housing
• the Housing Partners of Larimer program, meant to connect renters who are hard to house with naturally occurring affordable housing
• monitoring land-use changes, including fast track, the ADU-supportive designation and the mobile home park preservation zone that is underway, to see whether they are having their intended effects

The county has stopped funding the home-share program run by Neighbor to Neighbor, staff said, because of changing priorities. In the last year it funded the program, the county contributed about $30,000, and staff estimated it may have produced three matches.

The program takes substantial staff time for few matches, staff said, and the county could reevaluate its impact. Commissioner John Kefalas said home-sharing could help older homeowners gain rental income or age in place. "There's a lot of potential benefits if we can actually figure out how to get more matches," Kefalas said, and he urged the county to ask Neighbor to Neighbor how the program might change.

Resident ownership of manufactured housing communities is limited by park prices, staff said, and residents would need funding and technical assistance to take it on. The county can help residents understand their rights, the steps to explore ownership and whom to contact, staff said.

The mobile home park preservation zoning district passed the Planning Commission Oct. 21. Commissioners were scheduled to consider finalizing it Nov. 9.

The county's housing needs dashboard presents data from the regional housing needs assessment. It is linked from larimer.org/housing, and the county plans to update it annually so jurisdictions and nonprofits draw on the same data.

The dashboard does not include data from the Homelessness Management Information System, which the Northern Colorado Continuum of Care maintains. That data for the region is available on the Continuum of Care's website.

The regional homelessness strategic plan was developed in partnership with the Continuum of Care and funded to Homeward Alliance, which coordinated it and hired a third party to do the work. Larimer County partners with Homeward Alliance as a convener and accountability partner, and the Housing Action Plan names those as roles the county can play in moving that plan forward.

Completing the housing work could help the county seek funding ahead of other parts of the state, a staff member who said they thought they were the interim director of the service area told commissioners. The work "positions Larimer County and others in our region to get funding ahead of some of the other areas of the state," the staff member said.

The staff member also said the job description for the Human and Economic Service Area director is being revised with human resources after a service-area retreat. Recruitment is planned to begin after the first of the year, the staff member said.