Aspen School District housing survey points to district housing needs

The Aspen School District (ADS) does not need to house 100% of its employees to meet employees’ needs, but it still needs to acquire more housing, ASD Housing Director Sam Rose said during a Wednesday school board meeting.

His determination came from a survey of over 200 ASD employees about their housing situation, many of which said they lived in housing not owned by the district and of those, only a small percentage said they would like to move into district housing if a unit became available. 

“The conclusion I came to is that we don’t need 100% housing, but we do need more,” he said. “If I were to give a concrete suggestion — since I think this relates to the bond issuance that you might consider — is I believe we should go for another bond for more housing purposes; and every time we go for a bond, we get more and we build more, that’s the time to evaluate and see where we’re at because it’s always a changing landscape … right now, we definitely don’t have enough, but we’re in very good shape.”

The school district set a goal to house 100% of its employees by 2036. But after reviewing the survey results, board member Stacey Weiss said the district should focus on what current employees need rather than pursuing a unit for every district employee.

“I feel like when we talk about the 100%, I think it’s important … that we should be saying 100% of the need, which does not mean 100% of every employee in the district,” she said. “Because there will always be some percentage of people who are able to get APCHA housing, who don’t want to live in district housing for one reason or another, or they start out there and then their family grows and they need something different, so maybe they move out of (that housing).”

The survey showed that most employees who would like to be in district housing need either a one-bedroom unit or a three or more-bedroom unit. The school district is nearing the end of a $114 million bond that voters approved in 2020, about $50 million of which was spent on housing acquisitions, developments, and upgrades. 

But it wasn’t able to get to all the projects it planned for with the 2020 bond, and school district leaders have talked for months about pursuing another bond for the November ballot, some of which could go to more housing projects.

The housing need for district employees is a fluid situation that is hard to fully solve at any given time, Rose said. About 33% of district employees are in district-owned housing, and there are six empty units in the district’s portfolio. It will become easier to address the need once all units are filled, and there are still employees who are looking for housing, he said.

“I do think when I go back to Amy (Littlejohn, the district HR director) and others after all the units are filled and people are still clamoring for it, I think that’s going to be the most scientific number to understand that we are behind,” he said.

The district prioritizes “frontline” hires — teachers and administrators — to offer employee housing to, Superintendent Dave Baugh said. It would need to almost double its housing stock in three years to house every employee and keep up with a predicted turnover rate, he added.

But it becomes tricky when individual situations don’t match the available housing stock. Some school district employees may have to room with other employees because there are no one-bedrooms available, or an employee who grows their family might not be able to upgrade if there aren’t any units large enough.

Board member Cassie Harrelson also asked about how the district would address employees who are renting free-market units but may be faced with rent increases and have to leave their housing because of it. Rose, who started as housing director three months ago, emphasized the intricacies and fluidity of the housing situation for individual employees and said he will have a better picture for a housing plan on Aug. 1 when employees move into their new units.

He added that the employees who have told him are in need of housing right now are okay in their current situations until the end of the school year.

He also emails employees updates about APCHA lotteries with guides on how to navigate the process. 

“I think we are just going to have to plan for this future of people are not going to be able to afford, like they most likely have been, in the free-market anymore,” said Board President Christa Gieszl.