Column: Looking at other communities for housing solutions

Last month this column focused on the faces of Tahoe’s housing crisis. This month we look at a few promising solutions from other tourist communities.

One example is the Town of Vail’s “Vail InDEED” program. Like Tahoe, the Town of Vail is constrained by a lack of available land and high construction costs. Development of new housing is slow and costly. The Vail InDEED program was created to deed restrict existing properties to create a market for locals only.

Here's how it works. If you are employed for 30 hours or more per week in Eagle County and you want to buy a home or apartment, the program will give you a certain amount to put towards the purchase price (up to 20 percent of the cost of the home). In return, you put a deed restriction on your home and can only sell or rent it to someone else who lives and works in the County.

This supplemental payment covers the gap between what a local versus a second homeowner can typically afford to pay for a home. And, it is more flexible than traditional deed restriction programs. You can make any income and you can sell at any price - as long as it is local to local. The Town of Vail has found this approach considerably cheaper, easier and faster than building new workforce housing. (http://www.vailindeed.com/)

Another way to free up often vacant second homes for the local market is through a business master lease program. Whistler's Home Run initiative is a seasoned example of this. Through Home Run, local businesses sign Master Leases with second homeowners for a yearly or part-time basis. The business gets a certain number of rooms to rent to their employees. In return the homeowners get guaranteed rent, someone who manages the rental process and pre-screens applicants for them, and a responsible party for any damages. (https://whistlerhousing.ca/pages/homerun).

Closer to home, HabeRae Homes and Development in Reno specializes in transforming blighted buildings into high quality, highly desirable living spaces in Downtown Reno. They build small, affordable, and stylish homes and apartments. HabeRae has renovated run-down motels, abandoned storage units and even old laundromats into hip, eco-friendly, apartments. Last year, they completed a project with ten tiny homes encircling a community space with water features and edible gardens. Priced in the low $200's, 50 people were on the waitlist before the homes were even built. This company has won multiple building awards and there is always a high demand for their properties. (http://www.haberae.com/)

All of these initiatives have begun to change the dialogue regarding local housing and what is possible. We need similar out-of-the-box thinking - and action - here too. Tahoe Prosperity Center's Housing Tahoe Partnership operates around the idea that if you have a job here locally, you should be able to live here locally. To that end, the Partnership and other organizations are working on several ways to increase the supply of local housing. Partnership activities include: (1) working with regulatory agencies to identify policy changes that both protect lake clarity and support local housing, (2) building up a suite of financing options for developers and (3) creating prototypes and design templates to encourage developers to invest in building local housing.

The group has already identified several sites with willing owners, proximity to transit and a commitment to keep rents affordable to locals. They have a financial specialist who works with each property owner to recommend specific site designs, layouts, and financing options to enable the project to pencil out.

Other organizations are also actively working on solutions. Progress for Tahoe is spearheading an effort called “Tahoe Home Connection” to encourage second homeowners to make their homes available for long-term rentals or master leases, similar to Whistler’s Home Run initiative noted above. Saint Joseph’s Community Land Trust here in South Lake Tahoe leases land to homeowners who place a deed restriction on their home to make it permanently affordable.

We need change if we are to meet Tahoe’s critical housing need. In a region where we are often told what we can't do in terms of development, we are looking for what we can do. When we put our collective heads together for the good of our community, we can prove what is possible.

If you want to get involved or learn more about this issue, please consider coming to the Tahoe Prosperity Center's Economic Summit on October 19. The topic this year is Transforming Tahoe in 2018 and housing will be a primary focus.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tahoe-economic-summit-tickets-48225071487#workforcetahoe

- Rebecca Bryson and Karen Fink