The Cheyenne Affordable Housing Task Force released a report on strategies for improving housing affordability in the City of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Cheyenne City Council voted unanimously in March 2021 to establish the Task Force, whose 15 members first convened in the summer of 2021 to study the city’s housing landscape and develop policy recommendations. The resulting report addresses seven priority recommendations: creating and maintaining a local housing trust fund; raising awareness about racist covenants that still exist in Cheyenne; creating a Tap Fee Deferral Program and a Fee Waiver Program for affordable housing development; eliminating certain zoning requirements to increase density; lifting requirements for more expensive building materials; and establishing a Housing Affordability Office.
“In some respects, the largest barrier we face is defining the problem, because that really depends on your perspective,” said Brenda Birkle, executive director of My Front Door and chair of the Affordable Housing Task Force. “All the stakeholders have a piece of the solution strategy that will only ‘fit’ through collaboration. The strategies expressed in the final report play strongly toward removing silos and encouraging a coordinated community of practice.”
“Unfortunately, there’s no one magic bullet to solve our housing crisis,” said Dan Dorsch, special projects coordinator at Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County. “But using the solutions and strategies from the Task Force in a coordinated effort with the city…we can begin to build a strategy and take the necessary steps to create housing for our community both now and for the long term.”
The Task Force lays out four housing affordability goals: enhance the supply and quality of rental housing; support a variety of attainable homeownership opportunities that enable economic mobility; encourage housing that allows seniors to age in a place of their choosing; and encourage the development of affordable housing. To achieve these goals, the report recommends that the City Council prioritize four distinct strategies.
The first strategy focuses on setting and applying policy and enforcing regulations. City officials and other stakeholders should develop a shared policy framework and cohesive narrative about the housing needs of people of all ages and income levels, across the spectrum from rental housing to homeownership. The City Council should assess the development review process and identify barriers to the construction of affordable housing, proactively educate builders and developers about the permitting process, develop a “Green Light” process to expedite approvals for critical housing projects, and assess building and development costs by residential development per square foot rather than valuation, which would benefit developers of smaller homes and potentially incentivize the construction of more compact housing. In addition, this strategy recommends that the City Council commission a code audit to ensure that the Unified Development Code (UDC) aligns with the community’s needs and vision. Code revisions should encourage diverse housing forms and diverse housing tenures, balance safety and affordability, protect and enhance the supply and quality of rental housing, incentivize the development of ADUs on new detached homes, discourage the rental of private homes for tourism, incentivize maximum development of oversized lots, address issues of affordability for residents of manufactured home parks, identify lands and properties to be targeted for smart development, encourage infill developments through lot splitting and multiplexes, encourage rezoning applications, reduce public utility easement requirements to open up land use for housing, and eliminate height restrictions. City officials should also prioritize enforcement of current ordinances and requirements.
The first strategy also recommends that the city identify and develop financial tools to facilitate the development of affordable housing. Such financial tools could include tax incremental finance, an additional penny tax, and funding from federal resources, state resources, and public/private partnerships. The report also points to the ways that other cities are using “American Rescue Plan Act” (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds for community land trusts, local Housing Trust Funds, and land banks. The Task Force supports state enabling legislation for land-banking, which could pave the way for Cheyenne to use ARPA dollars for land banks. In addition, this strategy recommends that the city introduce a Standards of Maintenance endorsement program for rental housing. This voluntary endorsement would ensure that rental homes meet minimum standards for comfort, repair, cleanliness, and safety. The report also encourages the City Council to support state-level policy reforms that would provide residents of mobile home parks with the right of first refusal and facilitate the conversion of parks into co-ops where homeowners collectively own the land they live on. Finally, the strategy recommends educating landlords about code requirements, alternative life safety standards, and minimum maintenance standards.
The second strategy focuses on producing, gathering, storing, and disseminating data. The report suggests establishing a central data hub within the recommended Housing Affordability Office to break down information siloes. This strategy also recommends that the city generate its own data to make smart development plans through a parcel data study and geospatial economic modeling. The city’s research would bolster its capacity to serve as a resource for developers, builders, and housing nonprofits.
The third strategy outlines ways for the city to pursue advocacy, education, public/private partnership, and capacity-building. The city should adopt a Tenants’ Bill of Rights and educate tenants and landlords about their rights and responsibilities. City officials should also develop and distribute information on innovative housing forms and concepts – including shared equity, co-housing, smaller footprint homes, and cost-conscious building techniques. The report recommends that Cheyenne explore short-stay rental development projects, such as dormitory-style housing, as an alternative to short-term rentals like VRBO. The city could provide financial grants, contribute land, or fast-track the review process for such developments. In addition, the city should work proactively to identify each population’s needs for housing and supportive services, advocate with coalitions working to address housing affordability issues, create and promote standard messages about the social benefits of housing investments, encourage citizens to use the process newly established under state law to remove racist covenants, and educate builders and developers on programs, funding, and incentives to create attainable and affordable housing.
The final strategy in the report focuses on effective communication between the City of Cheyenne and other stakeholders. Strong communication will lay the groundwork for the city to carry out the report’s recommendations. The Task Force encourages the City of Cheyenne to align its policies with a Housing Master Plan that supports the principles of smart growth and advocates for a range of housing affordability options, including the innovative housing models, incentives, and financing tools outlined in this report. Finally, the report recommends that the city continue to convene the Affordable Housing Task Force on an ongoing basis and engage members, as well as other community stakeholders, to advocate for the report’s recommendations. Local housing needs are constantly evolving, especially as new residents move to Cheyenne in search of a less urban environment and put upward pressure on rents. To ensure that the city’s housing policy keeps up with the changing housing landscape, the city should report annually on its progress concerning the four strategic directions and comprehensively review the housing strategy at least every five years.
The first section of the report’s appendix lists other strategies considered by the Task Force but not ultimately recommended due to capacity, policy, economic, or political constraints. The second section of the appendix includes a background report from the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Capstone Cadets, which describes Cheyenne’s current housing stock and identifies housing needs based on economic indicators and projections of future growth.
As members of the Task Force work with City Council to make the case for following the report’s recommendations, Cheyenne housing advocates are also focused on educating the community about housing and racial equity. Representatives from housing organizations hosted a town hall event in October on the history of restrictive covenants and how residents can harness a new Wyoming state law to remove racist language from their deeds. Cheyenne housing advocates will continue this education campaign in January 2023 with a virtual town hall event on redlining and restrictive covenants.
For more information on upcoming events, contact Dan Dorsch, special projects coordinator at Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County, at [email protected].
The full Affordable Housing Task Force Report can be found here.