Southwest Colorado COG asks Montezuma County for support to automate state-required housing needs assessments

Chuck Powers, representing the Southwest Colorado Council of Governments, asked the commission to provide a letter of support for an application to DOLA’s HPLN funding pool. Powers said the request would finance work to automate housing‑needs assessments that the speaker said the state requires under a bill discussed in the workshop (referred to in the meeting as SB 1974).

Powers said SB 1974 requires jurisdictions with populations over 1,000 to prepare housing‑needs assessments every six years and produce specific outputs. He told commissioners the SWCCOG has published an RFQ, solicited vendors and is seeking funds to build a platform that will automate the assessment using the publicly documented data sources the state requires. Powers said the approach aims to reduce repeated consultant costs for jurisdictions that lack capacity.

Powers said the SWCCOG has already secured $27,000 from Chapa toward the work and is seeking additional grant funds; he cited an example vendor platform (PolicyMap) that costs about $20,000 a year to maintain and contrasted that with a state grant pool figure mentioned in discussion of $11,000,000 for the first cycle. He summarized the policy problem bluntly: “We don't have enough houses, and what we have cost too much.”

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about scope and cost; Powers said the RFQ is intended to establish the likely build cost and that he would not ask local governments for matching funds. No formal vote or commitment to sign a letter was recorded at the workshop; commissioners heard the request and did not object during the discussion.

Ending: Staff and the SWCCOG will follow up on the RFQ and grant application; commissioners indicated they would consider providing a letter of support but did not take formal action at the workshop.