PROSPER LONGMONT LAUNCHES
Initiative to Advocate for Attainable Housing in Longmont
LONGMONT, CO (10/12/21) — Prosper Longmont, a coalition of residents, businesses, and civic leaders representing a cross-section of the community who have come together to bring a collective voice to the critical issue of attainable housing in Longmont, launched today.
“We have a workforce crisis happening in Longmont,” said Eric Wallace, founder of Left Hand Brewing and founding member of Prosper Longmont. “Prosper Longmont was founded because we believe the current policies and decisions impacting affordable and workforce housing are exacerbating the housing crisis in our community, not improving it. We are taking action because the time is now. The choice is not grow or grow not, it is to decide how to wisely manage the growth that is happening. And the answer is attainable housing.”
There are significant pressures on Longmont’s housing market. Median home prices are now beyond what a growing share of local workers can afford and continue to appreciate at an unprecedented rate. Current policies that restrict housing supply have created an environment in which home prices continue to outpace income levels.
Further, according to the 2021 Workforce Perceptions Study “housing affordability,” “access to housing,” and “cost of living” were ranked as very to extremely important to respondents and Longmont had significant shortcomings in these areas.
Prosper Longmont has four objectives:
- “Do No Harm”: Prosper Longmont will work with Longmont’s elected leaders to advocate for an approach to policy-making that does not have a negative impact on housing affordability, equitable access to home ownership opportunities, or the feasibility of creating attainable housing.
- Set Goals & Measure Progress: The Prosper Longmont coalition will set goals, measure progress, and hold ourselves and our City leaders accountable. We will do this by taking a data-informed approach to defining affordability, to objectively measuring the attainable housing gap, and to setting a target for the future creation of attainable housing that ensures people who work in Longmont can afford to live in Longmont.
- Align Policy & Process with Vision: Prosper Longmont will work in partnership with our elected leaders and City staff to identify and address barriers that exist in our current code, zoning, and development review process that prevent us from achieving the attainable housing goals established in Envision Longmont and Advance Longmont 2.0.
- Innovate & Create: Prosper Longmont coalition members will take a proactive approach to identifying and implementing creative, inclusive, and collaborative solutions to the creation and financing of housing that is equitably attainable for all individuals regardless of race, age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, or sexual orientation.
In addition to a positive impact on quality of life and work/life balance, attainable housing affects local businesses in many positive ways, including boosting recruitment and reducing employee turnover.
In recent remarks made to the Longmont City Council, Wallace said, “If our young people can’t afford to buy homes in Longmont and begin to build equity, the nature of our community will be heavily impacted over time. We can’t say we are inclusive while acting to be exclusive.”
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ABOUT PROSPER LONGMONT: Prosper Longmont is an initiative designed to advocate for a Longmont that thrives and whose residents and workers prosper through a balanced approach to the creation of attainable housing that ensures the needs of our current generation are met without compromising our future.