Housing affordability is a crisis in Santa Fe County.

It is impacting our ability to keep our workforce and provide economic opportunities for our future generations. Even if population growth stopped today in Santa Fe County, we are still faced with a major housing shortage.

If we want to solve our housing shortages, we need to develop the housing types with the proper amenities to make sure our quality of life, water availability, and public health and safety are not over-run with large scale developments, traffic, and lack of public services. We can develop long-term housing solution that don’t destroy the beauty and balance we cherish in Santa Fe.

Justin's experience as an urban designer and time on the Santa Fe Planning Commission and the West Santa Fe River Corridor Planning Working Group, give him a unique perspective about the long-term and short-term impacts of development for both urban and rural communities. 

Here's how we work together to provide housing solutions to help our community:

First, we can work collectively with organizations (school districts, municipalities), private companies, and citizens to develop small but impactful partnerships that provide affordable housing for our teachers, first responders, nurses, and public service workers. These opportunities will allow our community to recruit and retain employees in these critical sectors and ensure these essential workers can afford to live in the community they serve.

Second, we can provide small building grants or property tax relief to help support local homeowners. This can help with developing single additional dwelling units or provide incentives to provide affordability to the rental market.

Third, we need to use our tax policy to support affordable housing and not the second home market. We can use the property tax system to incentivize owner-occupied homes and affordable rentals so that our community priorities are aligned with our needs.