Summit County Combined Housing Authority

166183 Resource 78727 162077 162077 1176567183220 1204397788915 Controlled Bonnie Osborn slays Goliath

Summit Housing Authority directer receives award for her service

Kudos to Bonnie Osborn.  She has championed the affordable housing movement here in <place w:st="on" /><placename w:st="on" />Summit</placename /> <placetype w:st="on" />County</placetype /></place />.  Recently, the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (<a title="national Association of housing and redevelopment officials" href="http://www.nahro.org/index.cfm">NAHRO</a>) selected Bonnie as this years’ advocacy award winner.  Bonnie was the cause behind the voters approving an affordable housing tax in <placename w:st="on" />Summit</placename /> <placetype w:st="on" />County</placetype /> but more than that, her model could serve as a successful strategy for other communities in <place w:st="on" /><state w:st="on" />Colorado</state /></place />.           Affordable housing is a dire necessity in <place w:st="on" /><placename w:st="on" />Summit</placename /> <placetype w:st="on" />County</placetype /></place /> as workers in the service industry can not afford the prices of Summit's skyrocketing real estate market that is approaching build-out.  And by service industry, we are not just referring to waitresses and hotel staff but policemen, firefighters, dentists and doctors.  In Dillon alone, seven of ten firefighters live in <city w:st="on" /><place w:st="on" />Denver</place /></city /> and commute to the County for their required shifts.  It seems as though any couple that gets married and starts to have a family gets quickly priced out of the county and to lower elevations.    One of the areas that gets hit the hardest is within the Summit school system.  The problem is two-fold.  First, kindergarten in <place w:st="on" /><placename w:st="on" />Summit</placename /> <placetype w:st="on" />County</placetype /></place /> is not fully subsidized.  Imagine a situation where you had to pay $300 a month for full day kindergarten or, if you couldn’t afford it, you would have to pick your child up at noon and find a sitter or take your day off of work.  Furthermore, when your child enters the first grade, they would already be a year behind in math as math for kindergartners is taught in the afternoon.  The second aspect of affordable housing and the school system is keeping teachers from moving out of County.  Teachers are often a high turn-over demographic as most of them are just starting to raise families and the job comes with an unsustainable income.  The school system has stated that every time a teacher leaves the school system it takes $10,000 to recruit and train in a new one.  One school in the area is working on a proposal where they would cede some school land in exchange for teachers to get first crack at deed restricted housing.<place w:st="on" /><placename w:st="on" />Summit</placename /> <placetype w:st="on" />County</placetype /></place /> and Bonnie Osborn have been able to watch other resort communities affordable housing trials and tribulations and have been able to learn from them.  When <a title="Bog on Jackson" href="public/blog/162471">Jackson Hole raised teacher’s salaries</a> 32% to keep them around; unfortunately, it pushed the income brackets of the teachers out of the government subsidy realm but still left them in a place where they were not making enough to qualify to buy a <place w:st="on" />Jackson Hole</place /> home.  <city w:st="on" /><place w:st="on" />Aspen</place /></city />, one of the first communities to reach build-out, has a deed restricted unit that is over a million dollars; maybe that could have been planned better.  Bonnie's’ tax might fill the <a title="Summit County Housing Authority" href="http://www.co.summit.co.us/housing/index.cfm">Summit Combined Housing Authority</a> coffers enough that they can buy housing and keep the ailing demographic issues.  This year children form other communities has to be bussed into Frisco in order for there to be enough children to open the school.  These issues translate to help staff in local pubs and restaurants and if our service industry flails then the back bone of the tourist driven economy flails.  The bright side of these issues exists.  <a href="Summit%20County%20Rotary">Local Rotary</a> clubs are fund raising to send children to kindergarten full day.  Bonnie's’ strides in tax work and voter sway; she’s a Rotarian as well and just an all around great lady.  Silverthorne approved 11 two-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-car garage affordable housing units in the <a href="http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070413/NEWS/104130091">South Maryland Creek</a> Ranch in exchange for a building permit for 71 high-end homes.All of these positives count as progress.  Thank you Bonnie Osborn, we could not have done it with out you.  Blog by Jason Brewer 9 application/xml false deed restricted local ownership resort property Summit combined housing athourity Summit County Combined Housing Authority Bonnie Osborn Director http://www.co.summit.co.us/housing/index.cfm National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials Bonnie Osborn's award http://www.nahro.org/index.cfm Jackson Hole efforts to keep teachers- Blog blog on Jackson Hole http://snowhome.blogsite.com/public/blog/162471 Rotary Club of Summit County Bonnis Osborns charity http://www.summitrotary.com/ Summit Daily Maryland Creek Article Daily Article http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070413/NEWS/104130091 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 jbrewer 66.198.200.154 false true false false true 205866 false false true false false false true 78727 blog blogsite/SnowHome/web