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Carlos Miller is a college student who grew up in rural Taos, New Mexico, but he isn't sure he'll be able to come back to his community when he graduates. James Cross, the CEO of the local Holy Cross Medical Center, is paid competitively, but still can't afford a home. Tiana Suazo, of the Taos Pueblo community, lived for years with her abusive father because she couldn't afford to move out. Meanwhile, the beds in the town's homeless shelter are filled with people who have lived in the community for decades.

These are just some of the stories shared by residents of Taos as part of a new video campaign called "Why Housing Matters." The campaign was created by the Taos Housing Partnership, a non-profit organization that acts as a bridge between the Town and County governments, developers and builders, local stakeholders, and residents to create a unified local strategy to address the housing crisis in Taos County.

Nestled in northern New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo mountains, the town of 6,500 people is known for its galleries, restaurants, live music scene, indigenous landmarks, and year-round outdoor recreation. And while visitors continue to stream in, it has become increasingly difficult to buy or rent a home in either the town of Taos or Taos County.

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"People just can't afford to live here," said Lisa O'Brien, the executive director of the Taos Housing Partnership in an interview with the Daily Yonder. "We have vacancies in our school districts and vacancies in our healthcare system and vacancies across the board. And most of the time they've recruited, they've interviewed, they've hired. But that individual doesn't have a house to move into."

The crisis has been building for years, according to O'Brien. And though the County has taken steps previously to understand the scope of the problem, there hasn't been an organization ready to enact solutions until now, she said.

"There was never an entity that took it on. And that's what we're going to do right now that's different," O'Brien said. "We know what the problems are. We need to start getting to the solutions."

Though Taos may be facing old problems, the scale of the crisis is new, according to research conducted for the Taos Housing Partnership.

In June of 2023, researchers examined the homes available in Taos County on a particular day to get a snapshot of the state of the housing market. They found that while there were 121 homes listed, only 8 of them cost $300,000 or less. Meanwhile, around 20 percent of the homes for sale cost over $1,000,000.

This is notable in a county with an area median income (AMI) of $76,000. Even for families who make 120 percent of the AMI, a $300,000 house is at the "upper limit of affordability," according to the report. Furthermore, the median sale price of a house in Taos County rose by $122,000 - or around 35 percent - in just three years between 2020 and 2023.

Renters are also facing an affordability crisis in Taos. According to the report, nearly 45 percent of all renter households are paying "unaffordable housing payments," with 86 percent of households earning less than $35,000 a year considered cost-burdened. As a result, it is estimated that as many as 750 low-income families have moved out of the county in search of affordable housing.

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"We're in a pretty dire situation right now, and I don't think we're any different than a lot of communities in the country, particularly small rural ones," said O'Brien.

Rural communities across the country face similar housing affordability challenges as Taos, with limited housing stock, a high percentage of second homeowners, and a lack of rentals. In counties with recreation-dependent economies like Taos housing tends to be less affordable than other counties.

In Taos, a number of factors have contributed to the crisis, according to O'Brien. Lack of housing stock across all levels, from below-market to high end homes, means it is difficult for people in any income bracket to find a place to live, though more affluent people have significantly more options. With an average of just 16 units built per year between 2020-2023, according to the report, the county is falling far short of the 300-500 units O'Brien estimates are needed to resolve the crisis.

But with the price of building materials still far higher than their pre-pandemic costs, correcting this deficit won't be easy, especially when it comes to affordable housing.

"People ask me, Lisa, why can't you just go build houses that people can afford?' And I always chuckle, because I can't call the lumber company and say, 'hey, can you give me the affordable housing window package?' It doesn't exist. The cost of building is what it is." O'Brien said.

Instead, O'Brien says the organization is looking at a range of possible solutions to reduce other costs. Land and infrastructure subsidized by the local government are one possibility. Changing zoning codes and encouraging developers to build higher-density housing will also help solve the shortage in homes. And mortgage assistance programs are another way to close the steadily increasing gap between the cost of a home and what most locals can afford to pay.

"There's not one thing that's going to fix the housing situation," O'Brien said. "But there's a lot of little things that you can do, and if you do ten of those things it may add up to getting someone into a home."

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Coming up with a range of possible solutions is one thing. Actually enacting them, with community support, is another, O'Brien said. This is especially true when it comes to building affordable housing developments, which is a critical part of Taos Housing Partnership's strategy.

"People have concerns about water here, and if we have a strong enough social infrastructure to support a growing community. These are all rational questions," O'Brien said. "I think the challenge is when there's this global sense of 'we don't want to change...we don't want anything that looks like growth. And that stops a conversation right then and there."

One of Taos Housing Partnership's many tasks, according to O'Brien, is facilitating community conversations to "level set" the way Taosenos are thinking about housing. O'Brien and her team are trying to help residents understand the deep connection between housing and other issues that affect the community, from education and healthcare to the town's tourism-based economy, which depends on service workers.

"We have to say, 'we all want to be part of a vibrant, thriving, growing community, which means having a strong healthcare system, having a strong school system, we want all our favorite restaurants to be open.' And if we want all of those things, we have to be able to provide the housing that accommodates that," O'Brien said.

O'Brien is the first to admit that turning the tide on Taos' housing crisis won't be easy, especially with decades of inertia working in the other direction. But she believes that the Taos Housing Partnership's grassroots approach to building support for a range of housing solutions is the way to move the community forward.

"So I think there's excitement in figuring out how do you get people of all ages from all different income levels to start talking about why housing is so important for the health and vibrancy of the community? We all live in it," she said.

Anya Petrone Slepyan wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.