CDOT to open housing development for workforce

FAIRPLAY, Colo. — Like so many other employers, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) faces a very Colorado problem:

How to recruit, and retain, employees in a state that is increasingly more expensive to live? The challenge is even harder in the high country, where housing is often most expensive — but road maintenance is critical.

“One of the most expensive places to live is also the place where a lot of our tourism, especially winter tourism, happens — and the business of the highway and the criticalness of getting them cleared,” said David Fox, deputy property manager for CDOT.

“It doesn’t matter if we have the best equipment in the world sitting in a garage to plow snow, if we don’t have somebody to drive it,” he said.

But this week, CDOT is cutting the ribbon on one of its newest solutions: A 12-home housing development in Fairplay, built to house the workforce in that area. All the homes are 2 and 3-bedroom modular single family homes, available for rent to state employees, on a tiered priority system.

CDOT owns the land, a former maintenance site, and spent nearly $7.5 million to develop it and build the 12 homes. Now, the state will serve as the “landlord,” offering rental properties to employees (the “tenant”) at a reduced, affordable-housing rate.

“I don’t think you would typically look to the Department of Transportation to solve that problem, but the one thing we have is land,” Fox said.

“By us building our inventory and managing that, we can control those things — both the cost and the availability,” he continued. “When we make a job offer, we can offer it with the incentive of having a place to live in a very close proximity to where the employee will work.”

CDOT essential employees required to work snow events or highway needs in the area will get first priority to the new rentals, followed by other CDOT employees, Colorado State Patrol staff, or later, state, local, or federal government workers. CDOT said they were slow to roll out applications until the state knew an exact timeline for availability. CDOT was already providing housing stipends to employees in certain areas and will continue that program as well, including for staffers living in these units.

Ahead of Thursday’s ribbon cutting, Fox said a few renters plan to move in by Oct. 1, and the state is still taking applications for additional units.

CDOT is working on similar projects around the state, including a development in partnership with the Town of Frisco that will offer units for rent starting in the new year.