County receives three-year housing investment strategy, staff urged to prioritize sites and capacity

Consultants from Project Moxie presented Santa Fe County's housing investment strategy during the May 12 commission meeting, outlining how a hypothetical $10 million in county program funding could be prioritized over three years to maximize leveraged development and preserve affordable units.

Jen Lopez, president of Project Moxie, described the investment-strategy framework: match available program dollars to programs that yield the greatest leverage and benefit (developer assistance, permanent supportive housing, down-payment assistance, housing rehab and energy-efficiency upgrades, and housing authority portfolio stabilization). She said the team assumed $10 million for the county housing division over three years and emphasized trade-offs: building in "areas of opportunity" (east-side or close-in neighborhoods) carries higher land and infrastructure costs than building in lower-cost parts of the county.

Denise Benavides (housing staff) said the county has several active programs (developer assistance, down-payment assistance, a potential 40-unit permanent supportive housing project, and the Nueva Secchia project approaching close). Commissioners asked for district-level tools and data; Benavides said staff has built a district-level tool that identifies created, approved and prospective affordable units and plans a workshop for commissioners to review that data and district equity.

Commissioners discussed how county policy (tax-abatement practices, conduit bond financing, land-use code and ADU rules) and staffing capacity affect what the county can deliver. Several commissioners urged more emphasis on one-bedroom units and accessory dwelling units as a way to deliver smaller, in-demand housing types; Project Moxie noted financing and tax-credit mechanics make some unit types easier to produce than others.

The presentation will inform budget deliberations and potential code changes; staff said next steps include continuing code work, site visits and moving the strategy into the budget process.