Housing FAQs

What’s the difference between a Housing Needs Assessment and a Housing Plan?

Although the two are intimately related, a housing needs assessment and a housing plan perform different functions. A housing needs assessment (HNA) studies the current housing environment and projected future conditions based on population and job growth, immigration rates, and other factors affecting a locality’s housing demand. The result of a needs assessment is the identification of the number of housing units necessary to “catch-up” with existing demand and then “keep-up” with that demand as community growth continues. HNAs are static snapshots in time.

A housing plan takes us to the next step of laying out a strategy (or multiple) that can be used to address this identified need for catch-up and keep-up. Unlike HNAs, housing plans are meant to be flexible and provide a range of tools that match community values, local resources and capabilities, environmental constraints, and evolve over time as needs shift.

What does a Housing Plan do? And what does it not do?

DOES

  • Analyze current housing needs and challenges alongside an array of solutions through multiple lenses, such as buildout modeling to identify the economic and infrastructure impacts of constructing new homes (or of not constructing them)
  • Evaluate existing housing goals, policies, programs, and resources, as well as the capacities of the Town and partner agencies (e.g., funding resources, staffing capabilities)
  • Establish updated housing goals and policies to address identified needs, including quantifiable objectives that define success, based on the community’s collective vision
  • Introduce new and updated housing programs to implement policies and help achieve stated goals and objectives
  • Provide a housing policy framework to guide current and future decision-makers and to support state and federal funding eligibility

DOES NOT

  • Build homes or approve new development
  • Modify land use, height, or density
  • Amend zoning maps or regulations
  • Allocate funds in the annual budget

What’s the housing planning process?

There are three basic steps in the housing planning process: 1) assess housing needs, 2) develop a housing plan, and 3) implement, monitor, and manage the plan. These steps are typically repeated over an approximately 5- to 10-year cycle to re-evaluate and update the plan to keep up with new trends and changing community priorities.

Step 1

Assess Housing Needs (Complete):

Summit County recently commissioned and completed a county-wide Housing Needs Assessment to understand current housing conditions and provide data to inform solutions to the housing challenges that people in the County are facing. The assessment provides baseline information on local housing needs in Frisco which will frame Strategic Housing Plan discussions.

Step 2

Develop a Housing Plan
(This Process):

Through community engagement, data analysis, and scenario modeling, the process of developing Frisco’s Strategic Housing Plan will identify policy recommendations to address housing needs in the Town, with the understanding that “it takes a community to build a community.” Recommendations will encompass not only Town initiatives, but also partnerships and actions that organizations and other stakeholders can take to improve the availability and affordability of local housing to support the Frisco community’s overarching goals.

Step 3

Implement, Monitor, and Manage the Plan (What Comes Next):

An important outcome of this process will be to not only identify new or updated housing policies and programs, but to also define the measures for implementing those programs. Further, the Strategic Housing Plan will prescribe steps for monitoring progress toward achieving the its stated goals and objectives over time and for managing the Plan, including periodic updates to address changing community and housing market dynamics.

When we say “affordable housing,” what do we mean?

Housing is defined as affordable if the monthly payment(s) covering the rent or mortgage, plus utilities, is equal to or less than 30% of that household’s gross income (before taxes). If monthly housing expenses exceed 30% of a household’s gross income, then they are considered cost burdened; if expenses exceed 50% of gross income, then they are considered severely cost burdened. These definitions are consistent with those provided in Colorado’s Proposition 123 Statute and by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA).

What is Area Median Income (AMI)?

Area median income is a term that generally refers to the median incomes published annually for all counties by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In Colorado, these figures are published annually by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). AMIs are used to set income and rent limits for affordable housing programs statutorily linked to HUD income limits (e.g., low-income housing tax credit rentals).

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