Addressing the housing crisis
Fort Lewis College students and employees face a daunting housing challenge, one that has always been complex because of the scarcity of affordable housing in Durango and that has been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Faculty and staff who have chosen FLC and Durango as their home have experienced rising costs for homeownership and now students are feeling the effects of exorbitant rental prices in town, with both groups struggling to find available units in the first place. Our strategy for addressing the housing crisis has become a multipronged approach that assists the faculty and staff who want to live and work here and brings the cost of living down for our students.
FLC hired housing consulting firm Project Moxie in June 2021. Their report recommends a three-pronged strategy to address student, faculty, and staff housing, including:
- A mortgage down payment assistance program
- Development of campus land for student apartment-style housing and workforce rental housing
- Land unit development through partnerships with community entities
Students
The pandemic and resulting rental market price increases hit students in unexpected ways but taught all of us that community is extremely important. At FLC, that means we are committed to providing our students not only safe and affordable housing but an environment that fosters belonging and well-being.
FLC has stepped in with responsive short-term strategies to house our students. With on-campus residence halls at 100% capacity for the 2022/2023 academic year, the College partnered with 1304 Apartments and La Quinta Inn & Suites to accommodate students who wanted on-campus housing with an affordable off-campus apartment or a subsidized room option at the hotel.
Going forward, we are actively pursuing strategies to build more student housing on campus with assistance from consulting firm Scion Advisory Services, who specializes in student housing programming. This solution will take time to be realized, but we’ve already identified on-campus land where residence halls could be built and are moving forward on development aspects (e.g., request for proposals, community input, planning, and designing) with a target date of completion by Fall 2025. Our intent is to leverage the resources at our disposal to build below-market-rate housing and pass those savings on to our students. In the interim, we continue to develop partnerships and identify creative solutions to ensure all of our students have a safe place to live.