Longmont City Council Tuesday night unanimously agreed to tackle the lack of mid-level housing for workers who otherwise cannot afford to live in Longmont.
Council members directed city staff to create a task force to look at options for expanding housing for middle-incomers who struggle to find housing in the city. The task force, once formed, should come up with tangible housing goals to be reached to expand the city’s stable of attainable homes, council members said.
“My hope is to come up with concrete numbers for the kind of housing we need…” said Councilmember Aren Rodriguez.
The city should help working-class residents move into entry-level homeownership, added Councilmember Susie Hidalgo-Fahring, a veteran teacher in the St. Vrain Valley School District. “I rent a house and I can’t afford to live here,” Hidalgo-Fahring said during the council meeting.
The council heard from members of Prosper Longmont, an advocacy group pushing for more workforce attainable housing in the city. Workforce attainable housing generally means housing options not tied directly to income-restrictions, like affordable housing or inclusionary housing, Eric Wallace, founding member of Prosper Longmont recently told the Leader.
Wallace, co-founder and president of Left Hand Brewing Company, told the council Tuesday night that Prosper Longmont wants to help the city grow its housing stock so prospective workers can afford to live in the city.
“We’re here to help,” Wallace said.
Lonnie Cramer, president of UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital, told the council during a public invited to be heard portion of the regular meeting, that 67% of the hospital’s workforce lives outside of Longmont. “We need your support” to keep those employees in the city, he said.
Councilmember Tim Waters said the task force should not ignore the work already done by the city’s inclusionary housing ordinance. The ordinance requires the equivalent of 12% of units in new residential developments be affordable to low-and-moderate income buyers, according to the city’s website.
“I support any group to lean in and weigh in on this issue,” Waters said, adding that the ordinance already has language that outlines a plan for attainable housing.
No timeline was given when the city will come back on the makeup of the task force.
