Longmont’s work to build more affordable housing continues to face financial hurdles.
The Longmont Housing Authority owns two parcels of land just east of Hover and south of 18th Avenue, behind the Walgreens. The authority is currently in the design process for this project, which does not yet have a name.
Harold Dominguez, city manager and interim executive director for the Longmont Housing Authority, updated the LHA board of commissioners on Tuesday about the status of this project. Costs mean the housing authority had to make some decisions on how to move forward and what elements of the project to sacrifice.
“This is market rates and interest rates eating everything alive right now,” Dominguez said.
With costs as high as they are, staff are moving forward with a “stacked flats" design instead of the initial idea of townhomes. The stacked flats will offer three bedrooms, providing larger units for families, which see the longest waitlist for affordable housing in Longmont currently.
Additionally, the project had initially been imagined with a library flex space and early childhood care space, but due to the location of the land the funding is coming up short.
“This area is not in a qualified census tract, which is a big deal because if it were in a qualified census tract … you can actually include those spaces in the basis of the project,” Dominguez explained. “In this case you can’t include those into the basis, which means you have to bring your own funding into the project for those activities.”
In short, that means the housing authority is short $4 million to add the library and childcare facilities. Without the census tract, even the housing part of the project is still missing about $3 million.
The housing authority wants to apply for state credit from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority with a federal 4% tax credit with this project, but applications are only accepted once a year and are due Aug. 1. To apply this year, staff needed to know if the commissioners would be okay with moving forward without the library and child care spaces.
“Those were our huge goals, knowing that we wouldn’t get all of them, so we're definitely at that point where we have to decide,” said Molly O’Donnell, housing and community investment division director.
The LHA commissioners agreed that getting housing built as quickly as possible was the priority, so they were willing to leave the extra elements behind to keep the project moving forward.
“Because of the housing crisis, I think going ahead with the plain no frills solution is probably preferable,” Commissioner Marcia Martin said.
The project still has a $3 million funding gap it will need to fill before August, and Dominguez hoped that staff would be able to find and apply to some grants to help. He added that if funding opportunities popped up for the library or child care spaces, he would also let the commissioners know.
