Silverton, Colorado, is tucked away in the mountains in the southwest part of the state and has about 731 residents. But they want to grow, and to do so, they need more housing. Contrary to what you might think, building even just a few units of affordable housing is complicated and expensive for small communities. They often don’t meet the criteria for the big federal housing programs, like Housing Tax Credits. That’s why CHFA launched Small-scale Housing Technical Assistance, which provides training to communities like Silverton to overcome obstacles to building affordable housing. Ann Chase, director of the Silverton Housing Authority, explains how the program turned things around for the town. They are now adding nine townhomes of affordable housing, which will increase Silverton’s housing stock by 10 percent in just one building season. 

Mary Coddington, founder of Twelve Inc., is a consultant who helps communities like Silverton as part of the technical assistance program. Small towns face an uphill battle to build affordable housing, and Coddington says funding is the biggest challenge. She discusses how CHFA is creating new avenues for financing small-scale developments throughout the state in towns like Hayden and Dolores. 

Then, we’ll visit Mancos, just a few hours away, where Tami Graham and a team of passionate citizens banded together to save a historic printing press and the building it resides in. In the process, they took advantage of Small-scale Housing Technical Assistance, adding three units of affordable housing to Mancos’ downtown. Graham says she hopes to see more developments like this in Mancos. 

Resources from this episode:

• CHFA Small-scale Housing Technical Assistance
• Silverton Housing Authority
• Mancos Common Press

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