Workforce Housing

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Frisco Town Council has identified affordable workforce housing as one of their top 3 priorities, and is working on a comprehensive housing plan, which incorporates multiple strategies to insure employees are able to live where they work.

Why is workforce housing a challenge?

Mountain communities, like Frisco, are great places to visit, and their popularity as vacation destinations commonly results in a shortage of affordable workforce housing because of the prevalence of vacation homes and vacation rentals and the lack of inventory inherent in a community with limited buildable land. Couple this with a tourism based economy, which primarily produces lower paying service jobs, and housing the local workforce becomes challenging.

Learn more:

2019 Summit County Housing Needs Assessment Report Housing Solutions Strategy Town Council Presentation - June 8, 2021

Finding Housing Solutions

Frisco recognizes that our community is a better and more vibrant place when our workforce can afford to live and raise their families where they work. Workforce housing is intended to serve all areas of the workforce including first responders, medical care providers, teachers and hospitality and restaurant workers, so our residents have the services vital to preserving the quality of life for all community members.

NEW - Frisco Housing Locals Program

On October 12, 2021, the Frisco Town Council approved a pilot, long-term rental incentive program that aims to immediately increase the number of long-term rental units available to the Town’s local workforce. The Town of Frisco is partnering with Omni Real Estate to administer the program, which offers financial incentives to homeowners who are currently making their properties available in the short-term rental market, in order to convert them into long-term rentals.

Town Council directed staff to launch this pilot program with the target goal being of housing approximately 24 Town of Frisco employees for six-months with a program budget of $100,000, which includes management fees. This will give the Town a chance to focus on how this program works with their own employees, before it is launched to the larger community.

Apply Here to Rent Your Home Long-Term In the Frisco Housing Locals Program

Program basics

In the preliminary program, the Town will master lease a property and in turn, sub-lease the property to full-time or seasonal employees that have already been screened with a background check from the hiring process.
Depending on unit type and condition, the owner’s expenses, and employee’s wages, each agreement will be negotiated to reflect the specifics of the situation.
Omni Real Estate, a local real estate and property management group in Summit County, has experience with programs that assist residents in finding long-term housing and negotiating leases that are affordable.
Staff will continue to fine-tune the program details to achieve optimal outcomes for both homeowners and tenants.
Summit County and the Town of Breckenridge are also moving forward with short-term rental conversion program, Lease to Locals, in an effort to increase the number of long-term rental units available in the County.

Housing Helps Program (Amended June 8, 2021)

The Frisco Town Council authorized staff to amend the deed restriction acquisition program known as – Housing Helps 2.0 with Resolution 21-17. The goal is to incentivize real estate buyers and homeowners to deed restrict their property to maintain and sustain homes for locals in the community. The Town will pay buyers, businesses, current property owners, and investors to accept a deed restriction on homes that are currently unrestricted.

The amount that will be paid for a deed restriction will vary depending on the market and how well the home meets current needs in the community. The Town estimates that the value of the deed restriction may be in the range of 10-15% of the market value of the property. Participants may use the funds towards their down payment to purchase a property. In return, the recipients are required to execute an occupancy-only deed restriction (occupant must work 30 hours a week within one mile of the Ten Mile Basin) that will insure the property is used for local housing into perpetuity.

Program Options

Option 1: Town purchases a deed restriction from a home buyer as a down-payment assistance program (buyers may include businesses) that limits occupancy to local workforce community members with no income cap, price appreciation cap, or household size requirement.
Option 2: Town purchases a deed restriction from a current property owner (including businesses and developers) that limits occupancy to local workforce community members with no income cap, price appreciation cap, or household size requirement.
Option 3: Town purchases a market rate or existing deed restricted housing unit and resells the property with a deed restriction limiting occupancy to local workforce community members. Income caps, price appreciation caps, and/or household size requirements. Income caps, price appreciation caps, and/or household size limits may be imposed at the discretion of the Town.
Option 4: Town provides financial assistance to a current property owner to construct an accessory dwelling unit that is deed restricted under the terms of the affordable housing incentives of Section 180-5.5 of the Frisco Unified Development Code.

How to Apply:

Complete the online Housing Helps application
If approved, the Housing Manager will assist with processing the Housing Helps Purchase Agreement and Housing Restrictive Covenant
Process typically takes about 30-45 days, similar to a real estate transaction

Frisco Housing Task Force

In March 2017, Frisco Town Council made the decision to form a Housing Task Force consisting of community members with diverse backgrounds related to housing. The Housing Task Force had their first meeting on May 11, 2017 and were scheduled to meet twice a month for 6 months going forward (finished meeting in November 2017) . The goal of the task force was to assist the Frisco Town Council by creating a strategic housing plan for the short and long term workforce housing needs of the community. Areas of recommendation would include housing project priorities, code incentives and 5A fund strategies, among other issues.

Housing Task Force members were chosen by Town Council after a robust application and selection process and met together at times and in separate groups, one focusing on projects and the other focusing on policy.

In August 2017, the Projects group put together a charrette to look at 3 different Town owned parcels and presented the results to Town Council at an August work session. The results can be found in the Housing Task Force Charrette Overview.

2018 Housing Task Force Final Report Final