WCDA works on a 'roadmap' for communities to address local housing needs

SHERIDAN — Total home production across the state last year was 1,681 units — well below a projected 2,000-3,800 units needed annually to keep up with demand.

Of those new builds, 1,418 were single-family units, 205 were units in 2-4 family homes and 58 units were multifamily buildings, according to data from the Wyoming Community Development Authority.

Current production rates leave Wyoming between 389 and 2,179 units short of projected needs per year, said Kimberly Burnett, senior associate at Abt Associates.

Abt is a consulting firm working with the Wyoming Community Development Authority on its Statewide Strategic Housing Action Plan, and Burnett presented the first draft of the plan during a WCDA forum live streamed across the state on Oct. 21.

The strategic plan follows a WCDA housing needs assessment completed in March, which found that between 20,000 and 38,000 units need to be produced across Wyoming in the next 10 years based on projected population changes.

“Closing that gap means increasing housing production by at least 23%, up to 130%. That doesn’t happen without some fundamental changes to the housing production system,” Burnett said. “That is far more than Wyoming is on a current trajectory to produce. Without some real intention, we’re not going to be able to have the housing that we need for the workforce to keep Wyoming strong."

The strategic plan includes five draft goals:

• to increase housing affordability to support family well-being and ensure year-round Wyoming residents can make ends meet
• to ensure an adequate housing supply to support Wyoming’s economic growth and retain Wyoming’s workforce
• to balance the need to house Wyoming's workforce while preserving the state’s open space
• to make efficient use of limited resources for infrastructure and
• to build on momentum for addressing Wyoming’s housing needs.

The problems and ‘laundry list’ of solutions

The strategic plan will be completed in late November, and feedback is welcome until Nov. 10.

The goal is to create a “roadmap” communities can use to address their unique housing challenges. It may appear like a “laundry list” of actions, Burnett said, but the plan will also include “a clear priority list, action plan, an implementation plan (and) a clear timeline for all of the steps involved, including funding and leadership direction.”

“Housing is complex. There is not one simple answer,” Burnett said. “(This will be) a roadmap to go forward.”

The plan will also include a local policy tool for local governments to find a tailored set of recommendations for their needs, because housing decisions are mainly made at a local level.

The state has a limited, but strategic, role in supporting local communities, especially to improve efficiency, Burnett said.

Data shows it’s increasingly difficult to attract and retain essential workers to Wyoming, in large part due to inadequate worker housing, Burnett said. This means that Wyoming’s housing is a barrier to economic growth.

There were two job openings for every unemployed person in the state in October of 2023, according to Economic Outlook, and long-term shifts in employment mean housing is no longer affordable to Wyoming’s workforce.

The mix of jobs in Wyoming has shifted over the last two decades such that the fastest-growing jobs in the state are in the service industry. Those don’t pay as well as Wyoming jobs historically have.

The biggest job losses in the state are in the mining and mineral resource industry — jobs that historically paid more than those in the service industry.

That means that even if nothing in the housing industry had changed — if housing had not become more expensive — it would still be hard for Wyoming employees to afford housing, Burnett said.

“Businesses who want to come to Wyoming are sometimes wondering where their employees will live,” she said. “The price of housing is going up, and essential workers like firefighters, teachers, snow plow drivers — all of those people — are having a harder and harder time making ends meet.”

It’s challenging for developers to profit from building homes that Wyoming’s population actually needs, she said, pointing toward a lack of smaller, more accessible homes for the state’s aging population and its veteran population in the market.

The plan will separate possible solutions into low or no-cost strategies and those that will require significant financial investment. Low or no-cost strategies include reducing state regulatory barriers to builders and a statewide infrastructure expansion feasibility assessment for water capacity for new housing and job growth.

Strategies that will require new funding include the creation of a statewide flexible housing development fund to support workforce housing and infrastructure and establishing a statewide community land trust for workforce housing, possibly on leased state-owned land.

And no matter what the plan proposes, it will only be the first step, Stephen Whitlow, also with Abt Global, said. Wyoming must implement the strategies it outlines just to stay ahead.

“It’s not like places create plans, and then their problems are solved 10 years later,” Burnett said. “Housing is an ongoing challenge. Even places that are doing all of the things are still going to have an ongoing challenge … but it definitely makes a difference to change policies, to put resources toward the problem.”

Without that, problems get “a lot worse a lot faster,” she said.

This story was published on November 4, 2024.