“The buildings and the landscaping are just beautiful — we’re really proud of it,” said Mary Stegner, Executive Director of Partners in Housing.

Partners in Housing, which provides transitional housing and supportive services for individuals and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness, developed Bentley Commons in collaboration with two local nonprofit partners: Greccio, which will serve as the property manager and operates nearly 30 affordable apartment communities in Colorado Springs, and Rocky Mountain Land Trust, which offers affordable homeownership programs.

The grand opening marks the availability of 168 new one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments for singles and families earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income (AMI). Notably, 28 units are dedicated to formerly homeless veterans, helping provide stability and long-term housing opportunities for those who have served.

Click here to read the full article available on the Gazette.

Article Written by Gazette Reporter, Debbie Kelly 

The post Affordable Housing Expansion appeared first on Partners in Housing.

About three months later, the first renters will move into the new apartments, said Lee Patke, executive director of Greccio Housing, one of the three organizations orchestrating the project.

The other five new buildings will come online four to six weeks apart following the initial opening, he said. Mary Stegner, executive director of Partners in Housing, and Nate Clyncke, executive director of Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust, make up the other partners in the development.

When completed in mid-2025, 168 new one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments of independent living for families, singles and veterans earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income will be on the market.

Together with the existing 24 units on the site, the development will feature a total of 192 apartments. Twenty-eight units will be reserved for veterans who receive housing vouchers and assistance through the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We’ll have 44 of the 192 at 60%, but the majority will be for 50% or below, for which we have very high demand,” Patke said. “We see no problem filling these units. We’re pretty excited; it’s a big project.”

The complex spans more than 7 acres and has been 15 years in the making. It’s unusual because of the structure of three local nonprofits undertaking the effort, he said, since developments of this size normally involved out-of-state investors and overseers.

“This project is important to our three organizations for the benefit of our community,” he said.

To read the full article, please visit here. 

The post Bentley Commons catches Gov. Polis’ eye during Colorado Springs visit appeared first on Partners in Housing.

The 6 new building foundations are complete and, in sequence according to the development plan, each building has the framing, roofs, and windows rapidly being installed.

The first apartment building is slated to be ready for occupancy by April 2025 with each of the others following soon after. The entire project should be complete and occupied by households earning various levels all less than 60% AMI by October 2025.

We are grateful to be working with Palace Construction and many local subcontractors and vendors on this large project. Funding for the project came from partners to include City of Colorado Springs, El Paso County Housing Authority, and the State Division of Housing. The low-income housing tax credit investor is US Bank and the financing is through Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA).

Updates on the project including video updates, articles, and press releases can be found at https://partnersinhousing.org/bentley-commons-development/

To read the full Fall Newsletter, please visit here! 

The post Great progress being made at Bentley Commons appeared first on Partners in Housing.

Construction on 168 affordable housing units is underway in southeast Colorado Springs, following a ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday. Bentley Commons, the $64 million project, is close to 15 years in the making, as local groups have been eyeing affordable housing on the plot since 2009.

The nonprofit groups Greccio Housing, Partners in Housing, and Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust worked under one organization, GPR Properties, to bring the Bentley Commons project to life.

Lee Patke, the executive director of Greccio Housing, said that the plot of land near the intersection of Hancock Expressway and Astrozon Boulevard was originally supposed to house a series of high-end condo buildings. However, the developer at the time was only able to build two of the proposed buildings before the 2008 financial crisis forced him to abandon the project.

Patke said his organization, along with Partners in Housing and Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust were able to take on the property in 2009 and turn the existing buildings into affordable housing. He said ever since, they’ve had plans in place to expand their footprint and build more units on the land.

“We always had a plan to fully develop and fully realize the potential on that property,” he said. “It really has been a project 15 years in the making.”

To read the full article by Colorado Public Radio, please visit here. 

The post New affordable housing units to Colorado Springs appeared first on Partners in Housing.

“This is not a baby step in meeting the need for affordable housing,” said Greccio Housing, Executive Director, Lee Patke, “Adding 168 new units is a great win and a great windfall for this community. The 168 new units are in addition to the 24 already exisiting Bentley Commons units that will be remodeled.”

The Bentley Commons Development is on Hancock Avenue near South Academy Boulevard.

Large apartment projects are happening all over Colorado Springs,

“But those are mostly market rate properties,” said Pikes Peak Housing Network, Executive Director Jill Gaebler

The Bentley Commons project is different.

This size of affordable housing project is not typical

“We see smaller properties, especially when it comes to affordable housing, because it’s so expensive to develop,” said Gaebler, “They’re 30-40 units, but to have a major project like this is huge for our community.”

“We’ve worked on this project for years with the intention of today finally happening, we closed on financing in December broke ground in January,” said Patke.

The budget required for the build is close to $65 million.

The project is possible because three non-profits, Greccio Housing, Partners in Housing and the Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust partnered to create a plan and come up with funding.

Article by Bill Folsom

To read the full article or to watch this KOAA segment, please Visit Here. 

The post 168 Affordable Housing Units Coming to Colorado Springs appeared first on Partners in Housing.

60 one-bedrooms, 105 two-bedrooms, and 27 three-bedrooms

27 units @ 30% AMI, 19 units at 40%, 102 units at 50%, and 44 units @ 60%

Medici Development Group, an experienced and successful development consultant, is the technical consultant and construction manager for the project. Medici is a valued consultant on other local projects, including the recently opened Atrium at Austin Bluffs and the in-development Sunrise at Shiloh Mesa project. Palace Construction is a statewide leader in the construction of multi-family apartment projects and has been selected as General Contractor. Funding commitments include those from the City of Colorado Springs, El Paso County Housing Authority, Myron Stratton Foundation, Colorado Division of Housing (pending), and Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. Service and support providers will include Greccio Housing’s Resident Resource program, transitional housing from Partners in Housing, the VA Supportive Housing voucher program, and numerous community partners and providers. Property management for the expanded complex will be provided by Greccio Housing and its Commercial Real Estate Services division. The need for affordable housing continues to increase in the face of inflation, the desirability of our community, a still-red-hot housing market, and rising rents. Greccio, Partners in Housing, and Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust have remained committed to expanding Bentley Commons for over 13 years, including a multi-disciplinary design Charrette, purchasing additional land, collaborative project design and determining the population to be served, a completed Development Plan, and completion of extensive environmental review and assurance of a safe and healthy home to hundreds of citizens.

The post Bentley Commons Press Release appeared first on Partners in Housing.

The city’s Affordable Housing Collaborative, made up of local government leaders, nonprofit organizations and real estate developers was tasked by city council members a year ago to hold a series of public meetings to identify practical actions that could be taken. Their “Housing for All” report looks into ideas ranging from financing and land use changes to advocating for regulatory changes at the federal and state levels.

Mary Stegner, executive director of local nonprofit Partners in Housing, helps lead the collaborative. She said the group also looked to other cities for ideas; places like Austin, Texas, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, that have had recent success in improving housing affordability.

Stegner pointed to sales tax rebates for affordable housing properties as one way to make more projects feasible. That, combined with reduced fees on necessities like hooking up utilities, could save tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on starting up a property. Those savings could then be passed on to renters.

However, even if every idea in the report was implemented, some say it wouldn’t be enough. That’s because the housing needs in Colorado Springs, like most of the Front Range, are not limited to those with the lowest incomes.

“Just like any basic economics. If you have a supply shortage and high demand, the price for that product is going to go up,” said Darsey Nicklasson, president of local real estate development firm DHN.

She has been focusing her attention on the group she calls the “missing middle”: those who make too much money to qualify for placement in affordable housing, but still end up paying up to half of their income to find housing in the city. In a city like Colorado Springs, or indeed like some of the state’s mountain communities, those people may be working traditional middle class jobs like teachers, police officers, first responders and construction workers.

To read the full article on CPR News, visit here. 

This article was written by Dan Boyce. 

The post CPR News: Colorado Springs needs more housing that more people can afford. These groups have some ideas on how to do it appeared first on Partners in Housing.

According to the non-profit organization, families are now the fastest rising demographic when it comes to people entering homelessness. A majority of those families are led by single mothers.

Partners in Housing, which has been around for more than 30 years, helps families experiencing homelessness get back on their feet. They offer several programs, including a one-year housing program.

Last year, Partners in Housing helped 134 families, 94% of them were led by single moms.

“You know when the pandemic came around and they no longer knew if their kids were going to be in school or in daycare. Most of them lost their jobs then,” said Mary Stegner, the executive director for Partners in Housing.

That also was exasperated during the pandemic with child abuse and neglect all those things we saw a huge rise in that, so recovery from those is part of our program as well,” said Stegner.

Another part of the program is finding these moms good-paying jobs.

“We’re working really hard now to get them back on their feet, back working again in a field that will support their families. So, not just running from fast food to cleaning to doing different things, but really get them in a career field where they’ll benefit for themselves and their kids,” said Stegner.

To read the full article on KRDO, visit here. 

This article was written by Jessica Gruenling, a reporter for Good Morning Colorado. 

The post Rising number of homeless families led by single moms in Colorado Springs appeared first on Partners in Housing.

According to data from affordablehousingelpasoco.org, 32% (82,235 households) are “cost burdened” with the price of housing, meaning they’re paying more than 30% of income on rent or a mortgage.

The problem predictably gets worse as people make less money, with 85% of extremely low income (less than $25,100) cost-burdened. Sixty-four percent of those households pay over half of their income in housing.

Fifty-six percent of low income ($25,101-$46,620 in household income) households are cost-burdened, with 13% of them paying over half their rent.

“That means they have no flex in their budget for an emergency,” Stegner said. “When they’re paying so much of their income just to be housed, it’s not sustainable for a family to be able to do that.”

Stegner sees the affordability and accessibility of housing as an existential threat to the city, if prices keep climbing at the current rate.

“When corporations look at moving their company to Colorado Springs, they’re going to look at what the housing stock is, what our housing rates are and can they pay their workers enough to live here. So, it’s crucial for the health of our community that we keep an eye on this,” she said.

To read the full article by Brendan Thompson at Fox News, visit here: https://www.fox21news.com/news/in-wake-of-attainable-apartment-project-what-does-affordable-housing-mean/

The post What does “affordable” housing mean? appeared first on Partners in Housing.

Stegner believes in marketing all the skills, attributes, and accolades you can when looking for affordable housing partners.

“Communities really need to think about what they can provide in terms of incentives to encourage the development of more properties,” she says.

“Look at your zoning laws, look at your tax credits, which will always be limited. Think about other ways of doing things differently to be cost-effective and allow for low area median income households to rent more units.”

This has become a necessity in regions like El Paso County, where Stegner’s Partners in Housing is based. She notes about 45 percent of country households are cost-burdened, meaning they’re paying more than 30 percent of AMI on housing or, in severe cases, more than 50 percent.

“El Paso is really suffering because wages are lower than Denver metro, but housing costs are about the same,” she says.

“It takes time to build new housing, and it’s very costly to build new. Folks who own naturally occurring affordable housing properties are also selling to organizations from other states that convert the properties to market-rate properties.

Article by Nelli Day

To read the full story, visit Here.

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