APCHA board removes ‘longest work history,’ updates ownership lottery

The Aspen/Pitkin County Housing Authority Board approved a series of regulatory changes on April 15 with the aim of improving fairness in housing access, increasing predictability for homeowners and renters and supporting long-term housing stability for the local workforce.

The approved changes impact tenant selection for APCHA-managed rentals, appreciation and rent increase calculations, income requalification rules and ownership lottery chances, according to a press release.

“The local workforce has changed over time, and APCHA is trying to respond to several realities at once: the need to fill rental units more efficiently, the need to support current residents as incomes change, the need to preserve affordability and the need to give both long-term workers and newer workers a reasonable path into housing,” APCHA Deputy Director of Housing Bethany Spitz told The Aspen Times. 

The “longest work history” will be removed as a factor in the tenant selection process for APCHA-managed rental units, a change that applies only to APCHA-managed rental units, Spitz said, representing about 207 units within the broader APCHA inventory.

“The goal is to make the tenant selection process more efficient, more transparent and more accessible to interested households across the local workforce,” she shared.

APCHA had previously used a waitlist for rental units from 1994 to 2005, but it was eliminated in 2006 due to inefficiency — staff could spend up to two weeks trying to contact applicants who were either no longer interested or available, she said. The waitlist was replaced by the selection process that has been based solely off applicants’ longest work history.

“While that addressed some issues with the waitlist, it has also created delays,” Spitz said. “Staff must verify work history, process applications and make offers sequentially, which can result in units sitting vacant for weeks.”

Now, available units will instead be posted each Friday. Eligible applicants can submit interest through noon the following Tuesday, and a randomizer will select one applicant from all those who entered, giving each interested household an equal opportunity. APCHA will utilize Python, a common programming language, to randomize the list of eligible applicants, she confirmed.

“This change is intended to help fill APCHA-managed rental units more quickly while giving qualified workers at different stages of their careers a fair opportunity to be considered, rather than assuming that the longest work history always reflects the greatest housing need,” she said.

According to her, the average work history among renters who submitted interest in these APCHA-managed units was about five years. She emphasized that this rental change does not eliminate work-history considerations across the entire program.

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“APCHA recognizes that long-term members of the workforce have made meaningful contributions to Aspen and Pitkin County, and the board has heard clearly from the community that work history matters,” Spitz said. “For rental units, the board is weighing the value of work-history priority against the practical need to reduce vacancies and make the process more equitable for qualified workers at different points in their careers.”

She highlighted that longer-tenured workers are also more likely to have greater familiarity with the broader network of deed-restricted housing opportunities, like units managed by employers and private landlords, while newer workers struggle with fewer connections or less knowledge of the system.

But the ownership lottery changes still provide additional chances for applicants with longer work histories, while simultaneously giving newer workers a better opportunity to compete. The board approved increasing the lottery chances for all work history categories, so that they are now as follows:

• More than two years, less than four years: five chances 
• More than four years, less than eight years: six chances 
• More than eight years, less than 12 years: seven chances 
• More than 12 years, less than 16 years: nine chances 
• More than 16 years, less than 20 years: nine chances 
• More than 20 years: 10 chances

“That balance reflects public feedback from last year, when strong community comment opposed fully removing work-history weight from ownership lotteries,” Spitz said.

There is still a senior priority at Aspen Country Inn.

The board also approved changing appreciation for APCHA ownership units to a flat 3% simple appreciation rate. Current homeowners interested in the new appreciation rate will be required to transition to a new deed restriction.

Rental rate increases for APCHA units will also be set at 3%, the release confirms.

And tenants whose incomes increase over time will now be able to requalify at an income category one level above the category of their rental unit, in a push to “support housing stability for working households,” the release states.

Spitz added, “The rental requalification income changes are intended to give residents more flexibility to accept raises, promotions or additional shifts without immediately fearing the loss of housing.”

The board will review the effectiveness of this change after one year.

“Taken together, the changes are intended to make the program more responsive to the workforce that is here now,” she said, “while continuing to preserve APCHA’s long-term affordability goals.”

For more information about the APCHA program, go to apcha.org.