What Is The Current State Of Housing In Our Region?
*RMP uses the McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness when discussing the housing situations of youth because it provides a more holistic picture of housing instability.
“I think a lot of people are suffering [because of COVID-19]. I also think a lot of people are going to need to seek out homeless shelters. There is going to be a lot of poverty. It’s sad to say, but I think it’s going to happen. I think food access will be okay – there are a lot of resources in the community you can count on. But, housing – no. You can’t count on it. It’s not guaranteed.” “
Source: Source: Adams County Resident, Adams County Community Needs Assessment
Click the button below to learn more about the data contributing to housing insecurity throughout our region.
What Is Contributing To The Current State?
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1. Community members often struggle to access critical housing, education, workforce, and basic needs services due to challenges such as lack of awareness, insufficient transportation, lack of childcare, etc.
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2. The abundance of data, information, and resources out there to support increasing the supply of talent does not have one central location where entities can go to inform their decisions. In order to achieve the goal above, it is critical to have a clear understanding of how many learners are currently on pathways to top jobs and jobs in critical sectors the challenges learners, educators, and employers are experiencing, and what work is currently underway across the state to support increasing the talent supply.
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3. Each local government, in addition to economic development and non-profit organizations, have their own priorities and efforts underway related to decreasing the number of community members experiencing housing insecurity. While there is incredible work underway already, a more collective approach on specific projects could support increased attainable housing access and availability.
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What Projects Are Underway To Mitigate These Challenges?
The Rocky Mountain Partnership serves as a space for organizations, businesses, and community members from across the region to work together to develop, scale, and build on innovative projects that will solve some of the greatest adaptive challenges facing our communities.
Local governments across the region have their own priorities and work underway related to increasing home ownership, lowering rent costs, minimizing evictions, preventing homelessness and serving the homeless population, and more. The work happening through RMP is intended leverage efforts already underway to:
- Increase access and availability of attainable housing so that our workforce and populations experiencing the largest equity gaps can afford to live in the communities they work
- Increase educational and workforce outcomes for community members currently living in affordable housing, in order to support their upward economic mobility
In order to do this, partners have worked with the RMP Team to develop and implement projects focused on filling critical gaps and not duplicating work that entities across the state currently have underway.
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How Did This Work Come About?
The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake up call for our community that a more regional, multi-generational, comprehensive approach was needed to solve the most adaptive challenges facing those who live, work, and go to school here. In 2020, RMP convened housing partners from across the state to identify opportunities for working together to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
As the region moved into pandemic recovery, leaders within the Partnership saw a sustained opportunity to continue to utilize the Partnership’s framework to support housing projects that would increase access and availability of attainable housing. In 2022, the Partnership conducted two assessments to support understanding the housing landscape in our region:
- Policy Impact Assessment: Intended to identify how local, state, and national housing policy and legislation is impacting our region
- Housing and Education Readiness Assessment: Intended to illuminate where there are opportunities for housing and education partners to strengthen how they are working together
Findings and recommendations from these assessments led to the development of the projects above. Additional projects will be developed and/or scaled as capacity is grown.
The Regional Housing Roundtable
In order to support a more regional approach to improving housing access and availability, local government and housing authority staff leaders and decision makers formed a Regional Housing Roundtable in 2022 to identify opportunities for stronger collaboration. When Proposition 123 passed in November 2022, the Roundtable identified their first area for collective work- developing a shared definition of the process and timeline for what 90-day fast tracking under Proposition 123 could look like for localities in the RMP Region (Project #3)
Click the button below to learn more about the work and participants of the Regional Housing Roundtable.
Want To Learn More?
Learn more about this effort, including our data and targets, our action underway in 2022 and beyond, and who’s involved, by clicking on the links in the left sidebar.
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Matt Horn, RMP Director of Collaborative Action, serves as the Project Manager for this effort. Contact Matt at MattHorn@RMPBackbone.org with additional questions or to learn more. |