Connecting the dots between community and stable housing: A last look at The Colorado Dream, S3

Across the state, people are struggling to find and keep affordable housing. That’s especially true in Colorado’s mountain towns. KUNC managing editor Stephanie Daniel recently pulled back the curtain on this issue with the latest season of her podcast The Colorado Dream Season 3: Housing Wanted. What separates these mountain towns from other communities confronting the state’s housing shortage is “that it is hard for people at all income levels to find housing,” Daniel said. “I'm talking about restaurant servers, police officers, nurses.”Meanwhile, certain factors are intensifying the problem, particularly in the communities Stephanie and her team visited —  Routt, Eagle and Summit counties. For one, they are all home to world class ski resorts. “Visitors flock to these communities throughout the year, and tourism really drives the local economies. And that leads back to one of the challenges, which is the huge increase in short term rentals,” Daniel said.The pandemic and a subsequent increase in remote workers drove up home prices and made this problem even worse. But, there is a lot happening to try and keep community members housed. The third season of The Colorado Dream podcast lays this all out for us — and it’s now available in its entirety — so we brought Stephanie on the show to get some final thoughts about what she learned.