City Council to discuss affordable housing needs at retreat

Longmont’s affordable housing needs will be one of the topics of a city council retreat scheduled for Friday, 8:30 a.m., at the Hearthstone at Hover Cross apartment at 1762 Cook Court.

Much of the session will revolve around the status of the Longmont Housing Authority, or LHA, which provides housing and services for low and moderate income families, elderly and disabled households.

The council will “take stock of where we are with current capacity and ability to address the growing needs of the future,” according to a staff preview of Friday’s discussion.

The LHA administers about 450 Longmont Section 8 Vouchers and manages an affordable multi-family rental portfolio of 462 units in nine properties, according to the agency’s website. More than 900 participants and resident households are served by the LHA.

The agency was plagued by management problems in 2020 before Longmont City Manager Harold Dominguez became executive director of the authority in May, under an intergovernmental agreement. The pact also put several high-ranking city staff members in key positions at the authority.

The move helped the agency save over $190,000 that would have gone to fill seven vacant positions that are now being covered by city staff members, housing authority officials told the city council in September.

Dominguez said the city is looking at different management plans for the agency including bringing it into the city government.

Council members on Friday are also scheduled to discuss the future of Longmont’s 118-year-old Great Western Sugar factory. The sugar plant has been the target of several redevelopment efforts in the past but none have taken off.

Some city council members said, in a March meeting, that putting a new face on the sugar plant is too complicated and the city should concentrate on other redevelopment efforts in southeast Longmont.