First Summit “Needs” Meeting
7/27/16

Minutes

Question 1: How does the need for affordable workforce housing impact your organization?

  • TOT increases drives a need for more service employees
  • Minimum wage increase: How will it impact housing needs?
  • Employee turnover increases due in part to housing problems.
    • Leads to more money spent on training and overtime pay
  • Increase occupancy in Home
  • Service levels impacted by employees picking up slack from lack of employees
  • Professional Recruitment
    • Sheriffs
    • Town Staff
    • Hospital

Question 2: Lack of Inventory was cited as top reason your employees have had difficulty securing appropriate housing. Please elaborate.

  • Quantity and quality mismatches
    • Many homes with large price tags lack real valueAvailability of unit sizes
  • Quantity of energy efficient units and homes lacking
  • Lack of pet friendly rentals

Question 3: Rental housing was the biggest housing need today. What does that look like?

  • Multi-Family must have appropriate parking
  • With enough storage, parking, amenities, etc. units could be built smaller
  • Bike storage
  • A serious need for higher quality rental units
  • Demand exists for smaller 1 bedroom units for mid-level management types
  • Mobile home space rents
    • Uncontrolled, serious need for oversight

Question 4: Ownership housing was the 2nd largest housing need today. What does that look like?

  • Does better rental stock dismiss or lower the need for ownership units
  • Space for kids to play, space for a family
  • Storage
  • Parking
  • More privacy
  • Mobile home space rents controls and energy efficiency are a serious concern

Notes and Quotations from the Summit:

Kirk Stapp Intro:

  • Hodges from MMSA objects during the intro to clarify the density of the Hart Howerton in regards to Shady Rest
  • Says that it makes sense to bump up the density in the middle of the town and that the Affordable Housing aspect would remain unchanged

Responses to question 1:

  • Hodges MMSA: Occupancy for the MMSA is all about “Heads on Beds”, keep cost of renting as low as possible, dorm style rooms
  • Hodges MMSA: The mountain is content with the housing they have currently and have no further needs in terms of workforce housing
  • In the peak winter months’ people are found to be camped out in their cars, vans, etc. because there’s no affordable housing
  • Most police officers live in Nevada or Bishop and commute because it’s cheaper
  • Fire chief position is hard to retain because they simply can’t afford to stay in town because of the lack of quality housing for reasonable prices
  • Mid to High level management has trouble finding adequate and appropriate housing

Responses to question 2:

  • The price of the ownership units in town aren’t matched with quality. For the price the homes are “piles”
  • People don’t want to live in extremely expensive homes that look the way they do in Mammoth
  • Energy efficiency is a serious problem in Mammoth, many homes with high energy costs due to outdated windows (single pane), pour insulation, roofs, etc.
  • Housing stock in need of renovations and upgrades

Responses to question 3:

  • It needs to be affordable town or house style
  • Parking is an issue especially multi-family parking
  • People are willing to rent smaller units if there is adequate storage, parking, bike storage, amenities, etc.
  • “Nice” rentals are few and far between, save money with shared amenities
  • Serious need for smaller, 1 bedroom units for middle management “millennials” who aren’t quite committed to the community
  • There is a county-wide land and water shortage that makes it nearly impossible to build in other places in the “valley”
  • Fire control and management are very large barriers to developments in Crowley Lake and elsewhere due to the lack of water and fire suppression resources.
  • Crowley Lake feels as though Mammoth is dumping its problem onto them and quote, “sending them undesirable rental populations”

Responses to question 4:

  • Need for mobile home park space rent control
  • Mobile home parks are a large part of the workforce housing of Mammoth Lakes and need to be preserved and protected
  • Mobile home park rent control successfully done elsewhere, why not Mammoth Lakes?
  • Low quality rental options for people into ownership who want to live in “nice” homes
  • Would a better rental stock with higher quality units decrease the need for more ownership options?
  • Serious need for ownership products with space for kids and families, pets and more storage + parking
  • Developments without transient (overnight rental options) options, more owner occupied ownership