[This column appeared in the November 25, 2024 edition of the Sopris Sun.]
At the end of last year, Garfield County Libraries staff interviewed 90 community leaders. We asked about and tallied recurrent concerns, and housing was top of the list. Leaders identified several big issues under that heading:
- Recruitment. The cost of housing (Garfield County is one of the least attainable in the nation) means that it can be very difficult to bring in outside talent with rich skills and relevant experience. Even if the pay is good, it's not good enough to cover a $1.2 million house. And if new employees have to find more affordable housing in the western part of the county, they may shy away from long and frustrating commutes.
- Retention. What many employers do, then, is to focus on finding and growing local talent. It happens that I enjoy that aspect of administration. Helping bright and ambitious community members find their passion and grow their expertise is rewarding on many levels. But several library staff suddenly lost their housing this year when their rent doubled overnight. Some of them simply couldn't find alternatives and we lost them. Replacing staff isn't cheap--we estimate that we spend at least $20,000 in recruitment, interview, orientation, and training costs for each new hire aside from their salary.
- Time for parenting. Gresley mentioned this in passing. Better jobs closer to home (the tag line for the Colorado River Valley Economic Development Partnership) means parents might have an extra couple of hours a day to spend with their kids.
- The loss of young people. Even two or three part-time jobs may not be enough to get young adults out of their parents' basement. People just starting their professional lives are often forced to leave their area, and even then may be saddled with student loans, further inhibiting their ability to start growing their wealth.
- Neighborhood character. It used to be that older couples downsized when the kids left. That opened up houses for new young families. But now, the older folks can't afford to move. Whatever profit they make through the sale isn't enough to cover even a much smaller place.
- Time for civic engagement. Another shared concern of Garfield County residents was the desire to build community. Even in an often overheated election cycle, none of our interviewees posed rounding up either conservatives or liberals and running them out of town. Instead, they wanted to build bridges, form connections, discover common ground. But in order to do that people need the time to attend neighborhood meetings, civic events, and other awareness programs. There are fascinating activities all over the county, almost daily. But if you put in a couple hours each way, every day, just getting out and back from home, you don't have the stamina for civic exploration. You may not have time to talk to the folks next door.
- Climate. Gresley mentioned the obvious toll on the environment of tens of thousands of cars, usually with just one person in each vehicle, trolling along beside the rivers.
Getting clear on the problems is useful. But their very breadth makes it clear that no one answer will work. Working from home is nice for some people--but not all jobs can be done remotely. I'm intrigued by several of the alternative housing models: tiny homes, boutique manufactured housing (like Eco Dwelling), experimental accessory dwelling units, and the even more daring earthships and geodesic domes.
Three of Garfield County's biggest employment sectors are government (including county, municipal, and public education institutions), health care, and the building trades. I keep thinking that the combination of so much local skilled construction labor and an interstate might generate some new local business opportunities.
Couldn't we not only design and build sturdy, attractive, affordable and climate-friendly housing locally, but become a hub for the dissemination of that housing elsewhere?
Beyond that, there are a host of additional actions that could be taken by government (deed restricted housing, special zoning, ebike paths), employers (housing or commuting subsides), and other private sector options (partnerships, special developments). The Garfield County Public Library Foundation recently contributed $100,000 to Habitat for Humanity, applied to the L3 Condominium Conversation Project in Glenwood Springs for a qualifying library employee. But even that commitment only moves the needle a little for just one institution.
The bottom line: humans are probably smart enough to solve this crisis. But it's clear that the same kind of thinking that got us into this problem won't get us out of it.
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