Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Glenwood Springs is a city of 10,000 people located at the mouth of the Roaring Fork Valley. The city has faced significant housing pressure from upvalley communities, leading to 2,000-unit housing shortfall, rising costs of rent and for-purchase homes, and displacement of locals. In 2022, the City engaged Community Builders to develop and facilitate a process to explore ways to create dedicated funding for affordable housing, and how those funds would be used. CB helped the city develop an inclusive, citizen-driven process to explore options and develop a strategy for using local funds to increase affordable housing in the city.

Community Builders led the Glenwood Springs Ad Hoc Affordable Housing Committee through several work sessions with the end goal of making recommendations to the City Council on housing priorities, opportunities, and implementation of a tax for ballot consideration. Throughout this process, Community Builders built a diverse team of engaged citizens representative of Glenwood Springs’ demographic makeup, reviewed case studies, created a matrix comparing sources of workforce housing funding, and helped the committee reach a recommendation for City Council.

The Glenwood Springs Ad Hoc Affordable Housing Committee’s work led to the approval of a 2.5% accommodations tax, resulting in the creation of a municipal workforce housing fund. The fund is administered by a citizen-led housing board and generates approximately $1.7 million annually through the tax. Since its creation, the Workforce Housing Fund Advisory Board has helped finance an employer-based rental assistance program, a down payment assistance program, condominiumization of an apartment complex in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, and a local LIHTC project and a purchase of a mobile home park by residents.