La Plata County officials have agreed to further support a project that will help prevent homelessness for 80-90 people each year.

The Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a $500,000 low-interest loan to the Community Investment Alliance, a nonprofit that is scraping together funds to convert the Adventure Inn on Main Avenue and 35th Street into bridge housing.

Bridge housing is a model that was created during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, CIA Co-Founder Jenn Lopez told the board. The project will fall somewhere on the spectrum between affordable housing and a shelter. The units are not intended for long-term habitation or purchase, nor are they an emergency bed for people experiencing houselessness.

Rather, the program would capture people on the verge of homelessness who have sought resources but have been unable to find housing and intervene so that those people do not become chronically unhoused.

“This is an episodic or situational homeless situation. They may not even be homeless, they may be on the verge of homelessness,” Lopez said. “ … They can’t come into our program unless they have an exit strategy and they’re actually signed up for a resource.”

The motel conversion will be owned by an LLC created for the project and controlled by the Alliance. A manager will live on-site and staff will help residents connect with other resources in the area. The project will accept housing vouchers, which is expected to be of enormous benefit to the community.

People often get stuck in a cycle of homelessness despite having a voucher because of the challenges associated with finding housing that accepts vouchers. In a tight housing market such as Durango’s, landlords have little incentive to accept vouchers, and recipients lose them if they cannot be used.

Rents would be kept low – an estimated $500 to $700 per unit monthly, preliminary documents show – so that residents can stay there until they find permanent affordable housing, a process which can take over a year.

The CIA responded to the county’s Notice of Funding Availability released in November 2022, and the initial contract for the project was approved May 9, 2023. The loan approved Tuesday was not a part of the initial contract.

The county’s share of the funding comes from $4 million of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funding set aside to combat homelessness. The loan will be paid back over a period of 40 years with a 1% annual interest rate, meaning the Alliance will begin annual payments of $15,328 in next January. The county will have a third or fourth position lien on the property.

The half-million dollar loan comes on top of $260,000 in grants to explore the feasibility of the project and conduct outreach, as well as a $50,000 loan to use as earnest money to purchase the property in June.

The Alliance is also pursuing $2.7 million in grant funding from the state, and the additional loan from the county is to be used as matching funds required for the state award.

“To be very clear here, the financing structure that the Alliance put together for the acquisition is unconventional,” County Manager Chuck Stevens told the board in his staff report.

He said the lien, associated risk and below-market interest rate is not something the county would typically entertain. However, the success of the project would bring with it considerable public benefit to the community.

When the county decided to close the unofficial encampment known as Purple Cliffs, officials said that they would not walk away from the problem, Stevens reminded commissioners. Just this week, 11 people were arrested after police found the group seeking refuge inside a vacant restaurant in downtown Durango. At least three of those arrested had lived at Purple Cliffs.

Each household that does not enter homelessness saves public and emergency health systems an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 annually, according to the Stevens’ staff report.

Lopez, who founded the Durango-based Project Moxie, has built a reputation as a trustworthy and accomplished housing consultant, Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton noted.

“This is a leap of faith – and we’re taking it,” she said.

rschafir@durangoherald.com