Is Vail’s employee housing program meeting the town’s needs?

Like other businesses, the town of Vail struggles with recruiting and retaining employees due to a lack of affordable housing.

In the 1980s, the town acquired its first employee housing unit — a residence for the town manager — but has since grown its inventory to include 83 units and 110 bedrooms.

The town’s first set of employee housing policies, procedures and rental rates were established in 1998 with the completion of Buzzard Park, the first employee housing property — with 21 studios and three one-bedroom units — that the town owned and operated.

Now, on Tuesday, the Vail Town Council will discuss potential adjustments to its rental policy and employee housing program to meet current demand and needs better.  

“The process for managing the town’s inventory of employee housing has become complicated, employee housing needs continue to expand and the town’s current methods for managing employee housing are challenged by increased demand,” reads the July 16 meeting packet memo.

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The discussion at the afternoon Town Council meeting will center on the work of an internal committee comprised of the town manager as well as members of its human resources, public works and housing departments.

The committee, the memo notes, is “working to identify necessary adjustments to the town’s employee rental policy amid efforts to address both current demand for housing and focus on strategies that will address future needs.”

How Vail currently manages its employee rentals

In the years since 1998, the town’s employee housing inventory has grown to house around 22% of its staff — 85 out of 380 total employees — in 84 units. One of these units is a master-leased unit.

Twenty of the units, and 30 bedrooms, — carrying a cost of $14.3 million — were added to its rental inventory in the last three years, the memo notes.

Town employees are eligible to rent these units based on the following priority.

First, they are available to seasonal and full-time seasonal employees (of which the town has 25 to 30 depending on the season).

The second priority goes to full-time critical service employees such as firefighters, police officers, dispatchers, plow operators, mechanics, code enforcement officers and more. The memo adds that the town has 147 positions that fall under this critical definition.

Third priority is given to all other employees including first, to full-time essential service employees (i.e. full-time bus drivers); second, to new hires in need of a short-term lease; and third, to all others employed by the town.

“Approximately 75% of the town’s rental units are occupied by seasonal employees, or those in critical or essential positions,” reads the July memo.

The baseline for what the town charges for rent goes back to the Buzzard Park property. Rents are set based on the type and size of the unit as well as amenities, roommate situations and more. The following are the current rental rate ranges based on the unit type:

• Single bedroom (shared unit): $734 to $900 per month
• Studio: $875 to $1,025 per month
• One-bedroom unit: $925 to $1,140 per month
• Two-bedroom unit: $1,468 to $1,694 per month
• Three-bedroom unit: $2,541 to $2,700 per month

“The past two years have seen significant increases in TOV employee rents – between 9% and 12% to bring our baseline in line with other employer-based rents and the upward trend of rental rates in general,” the memo notes, adding that the rates are expected to increase again in November.

What Vail needs to change and re-evaluate

The criteria of who can rent the employee housing units — including who essential and critical employees are — was set in 1998 with the town’s first set of policies. Now, the town wants to re-evaluate this to make sure it’s still meeting employee needs.

According to the memo, the staff wants to re-evaluate its definitions, priorities and timeline. These discussions will include whether there should be consideration for new leadership roles for “transition” housing as well as whether the town should focus on short- or long-term housing availability.

“Should the town focus on 2-year, 5-year or ‘forever’ housing? Does the town focus on meeting short-term needs with incentives to move out of town-owned housing, or does the town allow retirees to remain in town-owned housing with the ‘community-focus’ in mind?” poses the memo.

With its rental rate also harkening back to 1998, the town will also be looking at other ways to set its structure including looking at setting it based on a percentage of wages/household income, on AMI or other government indexes, years in employee housing or housing stipends. These considerations, the memo adds, will include getting legal advice.

Looking beyond rentals

The town’s evaluation of its employee rentals is just part of a larger conversation the internal committee is having around employee housing. This includes evaluation of its Employee Home Ownership Program, access to the Vail InDEED program and sales of deed-restricted units directly to town employees.

As it looks at the growing needs around employee housing, the town has established a series of next steps. This includes setting a goal, conducting an internal needs assessment, further analyzing the effectiveness of what it is doing today and setting strategies (and a budget) for future implementation of solutions.

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The Town Council is expected to begin its discussion of these topics at its Tuesday, July 16 meeting with Krista Miller, Vail’s human resource, safety and risk management director, and Jason Dietz, its new housing director.

The meeting will take place at its regular location in Town Hall (75 South Frontage Road), after a few weeks of meeting at the Grand View room in Lionshead while the building underwent maintenance. The afternoon meeting starts at 2:30 p.m. and will be streamed live on Facebook, Zoom and High Five Media’s Live on Five. For more information — including what else is on the agenda and how to give public comment — visit Vail.Gov/Town-Council.