Telluride Foundation: Rural Homes Housing Project Secures $5 Million!

04 Sep Telluride Foundation: Rural Homes Housing Project Secures $5 Million!

Telluride Foundation initiative receives funding from local donors and state-wide foundations.

For more on the Telluride Foundation, go here.

Unlike most affordable or workforce housing projects, the Telluride Foundation’s Rural Homes: For Sale, For Locals (Rural Homes) project, which aims to build workforce housing in Norwood, Nucla, Ridgway, and Ouray over the next two years, is not using federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) and does not require large subsidies from local taxpayers. Instead, Rural Homes tapped generous donors and foundations to provide the construction financing. Piloting a new model of construction financing, Rural Homes has secured over $5 million in private donations, grants, and below market interest rate loans from foundations towards the construction costs.

“Our fundraising success demonstrates that everyone in a community wants to help. Incredibly generous donors have approached us because they wanted to help solve the affordable housing challenge in their own communities, said Paul Major, President & CEO of the Telluride Foundation. “In fact, we had someone purchase and donate land towards the project in their own community. I am seeing stunning displays of generosity to try and help fix an acute local problem.”

Affordable housing projects typically depend on direct subsidies to close the gap between the cost to construct and what a local can pay to rent or own the home. Rural Homes is piloting an approach that attacks the cost of the overall project by acquiring free land, obtaining low-cost capital for construction, and using advanced building products and construction practices to reduce the overall cost. To read more about the Rural Homes: For Sale, For Locals project, go to  https://ruralhomesproject.co/. 

There are many reasons why building workforce housing in rural communities is so challenging and, therefore, doesn’t happen. Most affordable housing project in the U.S. are funded through federal  tax credits, and while these credits may work well for large apartment projects in cities, they are too competitive and often not appropriate for small and rural towns. In a few circumstances, towns can use taxpayer money through bonding or real estate transfer taxes to provide the subsidy needed for projects; however, most rural towns cannot afford to increase taxes to subsidize affordable housing. The Rural Homes strategy is designed for rural and small towns.

Telluride Foundation, more:

The Telluride Foundation exists to create a stronger Telluride and regional community through the promotion and support of philanthropy. This year, 2021 marks 20 years of making more possible through the Telluride Foundation’s commitment to enrich the quality of life of the residents, visitors, and workforce of the Telluride region.

The Telluride Foundation is a nonprofit, apolitical community foundation that makes grants to nonprofits, owns and operates programs that meet emerging and unmet community needs, and makes investments. The Foundation approaches this work through the lens of its core values of inclusion, self-reliance, and innovation. Its work is funded through the generous support of individual donors as well as grants from state and national foundations.

The Foundation hopes the community will join it in celebrating its 20th anniversary as it honors the nonprofits, donors, and community members who have all partnered together to achieve a significant positive impact on the region.

For more information click on www.telluridefoundation.org