The rugged beauty of the Rocky Mountains continues to attract new residents to the region. But rising real estate costs present challenges for residents living and working in the region's resort communities. Meanwhile, many Native Americans in the West continue to struggle with basic health issues, like clean water.

 

National Parks photo from
Glacier National Park, Montana

By Tom Austin, NeighborWorks Alert editor

March 17, 2005 – From the gold boom to the oil boom to the high-tech boom, the Rocky Mountain West has had a knack for reinventing itself, and Denver has often reflected the region’s changing face. So it wasn’t surprising to me, a Denver native, that change was in the air when more than 600 housing and development practitioners, mainly from the West, met in Denver for a NeighborWorks Training Institute last month.

For starters, Denver has a new mayor with some new ideas. John Hickenlooper, a downtown restaurant owner, welcomed the Institute to Denver, telling the participants that he is still getting used to the idea of people introducing him as “Mayor Hickenlooper.” He spoke of a convergence in the West of “enlightened self interest and compassion — cities cannot prosper unless we are all prospering together,” he said.

The theme of regionalism was amplified by Daniel Kemmis, director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West and facilitator of a symposium on regional issues. “We have come to an end of an era of big government,” said Kemmis. “Communities realize there isn’t someone else out there to solve problems. If we’re going to do it well, we’re going to have to do it ourselves.”

Sociologist Rogelio Saenz stated that the demographics of the West are changing. The West is becoming more Latino, he said, with half of that ethnic group now living in California and Texas.

Fannie Mae’s Sheila Maith lamented that housing lags behind health, jobs and traffic as a civic priority nationwide, and the Rocky Mountain states are no exception. She urged housers to “make the case for affordable housing in plain language,” and to make alliances with “nonhousers” such as environmentalists and educators.

‘Trustafarians’ and Other Newcomers
I found the realities of the New West most apparent at a seminar on housing strategies in high-cost resort areas. There I meet Sue Ann Grogan, director of the Whitefish Housing Authority, located in Whitefish, Montana. Returning to Whitefish after a stint with Habitat for Humanity in Papua, New Guinea, Grogan found that her own community was also adapting to cultural change, a wave of newcomers from the East Coast. She describes the new residents as a mix of equity-rich baby boomers purchasing second homes and what she referred to as “Trustafarians,” 26 to 36 year-olds footloose with family inherited wealth. Why Whitefish? Apparently the East Coasters are finding that nearby Glacier National Park, with its 1,500 square miles of wilderness and plentiful wildlife, beats long commutes, crowds, and cultural amenities.

Grogran is creating 26 affordable units in Whitefish and is committed to keeping them permanently affordable. Her strategy is to use revolving loan funds to ensure that when new homeowners cash out of their homes that at least some of the money is recycled into new affordable homes.

So, how do resort towns keep their character with the wave of newcomers? Exchanging ideas in round-table discussions, Grogan tapped the experience of housers from Santa Fe, Boulder, Jackson Hole and other Western cities that have dealt with similar issues for more than a decade. Many of these resort towns have instituted inclusionary zoning policies as a primary strategy for preserving affordable residences in the wake of rising prices.

I learned that some ski areas are working with city governments on local solutions so resort workers don’t have to drive through the mountains for two hours to get to their jobs. In Aspen, Colorado, the affordable housing is so tight that housing officials make new units available to workers by a lottery system.

Building affordable housing in the Rockies is apparently no picnic. One developer told us the story of a contractor who was grading a new road to a housing development when his bulldozer discovered a boulder in the ground the size of a bus. It would have to be removed before the project could progress.

The Crow Language’s New Word for Mortgage
One evening in Denver I attended a reception in a Lower Downtown loft not far from where Cherry Creek intersects the Platte River; the former originates from the plains east of Denver, the latter, from the mountains. The reception was hosted by the Montana Homeownership Network, and its members were particularly proud that evening of making some progress in Indian territory. We toasted the first mortgage on the Crow Reservation, not far from where General Custer fell at the Battle of the Bighorn. Shawn Real Bird, from the Crow tribe of Montana, told us he had to make up a word for mortgage to describe the event to his mother because the word doesn’t exist in the Crow vocabulary. The new word they are using for mortgage in the Crow language is “bishbaaiwashdada;” the closest translation is “things I pay.”

As I looked out of the window overlooking Cherry Creek, I thought of the original Indian teepee village in Denver, the replica of which I marveled at as a kid when visiting the Colorado History Museum. Where Indians once probably pitched their teepees, I could now see the bright colorful lights outlining the new Pepsi Center, a venue for pro basketball, hockey, and ironically that old Indian sport, lacrosse.

‘280 States’
During the week I got acquainted with Jack Conovaloff, tribal planner for the Colorado River Tribes in Parker, Arizona, who was attending homeownership education classes sponsored by the Wells Fargo Foundation. He opened my eyes to the complexities of building housing on Indian land. I learned that Indians prefer not living in “280 states” such as California. He was referring to Public Law 280 that transfers legal authority (jurisdiction) from the federal government to state governments. The Colorado River Tribes straddle the border between Arizona and California, and he told me that the tribes in his area prefer living in “non-280” Arizona. The 280 issues comes into play in deciding where affordable housing for Indians gets built.

Health issues also loom large in the Colorado River tribal areas, Conovaloff said. When he observed black, septic water feeding into a residential area, he instructed the local utility company how to clear the water lines through a simple procedure. Another public health issue he said is diet. He’s initiated exercise and diet programs to combat obesity and diabetes. On the economic development front, he said the tribes are looking at new ways to capture some of the tourist money from the 250,000 to 300,000 visitors that pass through the area every weekend on their way to such natural wonders as the Grand Canyon.

Obstacles to homeownership on the reservations include the slow process of dealing with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the lack of bank accounts, and the need for more understanding around credit. Conovaloff said he was picking up some good ideas at the Institute that he could put to use on the reservations.

A Walk Across Colorado for Affordable Housing
Another interesting person I met during the week was housing advocate Blake Chambliss. Chambliss and Joe Giron, a long-time Denver affordable housing practitioner, last summer walked almost 850 miles around Colorado to raise awareness for much-needed affordable housing. They hosted 40-some community gatherings, with more than 800 participants, in towns of all sizes and diverse economies to learn about their housing needs. Along the way, these two enjoyed some of nation’s most beautiful scenery. In Chambliss’ words, “From the eastern high plains, up into the Rocky Mountains, out west to the edge of the Great American Desert and back through the mountains to the southern prairie grasslands of Southeast Colorado — birds, wildlife and wild flowers have been spectacular, and the fruits and vegetables from farmers’ roadside stands outstanding.”

What the walkers discovered about the state of affordable housing in Colorado is to some degree a barometer of what is happening in communities throughout the Rocky Mountain states:

 In mountain towns, service workers see their communities expropriated by second-home owners who claim the most buildable land, driving up the land, development and construction costs. The result is that local workers cannot afford to rent, much less hope to own their homes.

 In rural communities, generally, migrant and immigrant workers have little access to housing and even less to housing that is decent enough to meet the their personal or family needs. We found sparse public acknowledgement or support for addressing ongoing housing needs.

 In urban areas, gentrification is displacing existing residents; regrettably, we found precious few provisions being made to create appropriate long-term alternative accommodations for those being displaced.

The man who walked across Colorado added, “We are distressed by the social costs to families and communities as the result of deteriorating housing, poorly planned neighborhoods, and a laissez-faire attitude toward accommodating the needs of the working poor, the elderly and special needs populations. In this, one of the most affluent states in this most affluent nation, it is unconscionable that we are leaving so many behind. We can do better.”

About NeighborWorks
The NeighborWorks network is a nationwide network of more than 235 community development organizations working in nearly 2,700 urban, suburban and rural communities across America. These organizations engage in revitalization strategies that strengthen communities and transform lives. Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation provides financial support, technical assistance and training for the NeighborWorks network. In the last five years alone, NeighborWorks organizations have generated more than $8.5 billion in reinvestment and helped more than 500,000 families of modest means purchase or improve their homes or secure safe, decent rental or mutual housing.