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Breckenridge officials worry about some of the town’s workforce housing units ‘sitting unoccupied,’ suggesting change

The Village neighborhood in Breckenridge, a collection of 61 deed-restricted homes, is pictured under construction on March 5, 2024. This is one of a handful of workforce housing initiatives the town tackled in 2024.
Kit Geary/Summit Daily News

Consistent reports from the local workforce about struggles with housing affordability spurred Breckenridge’s elected officials to make it a top priority — one that has cost millions. 

Breckenridge’s 2025 budget document detailed expenditures from its workforce housing fund totaling around $15.7 million in 2022, around $38.4 million in 2023 and around $28 million in 2024. This year’s expenditures are forecast to total $22.7 million. 

At a May 27 Breckenridge Town Council meeting, officials expressed a desire to see changes to their approach to workforce housing after hearing reports that some of the units the town built are sitting empty.



Housing needs assessments have guided elected officials as they shape housing goals and subsequent initiatives. The most recent iteration, the 2023 Housing Needs Assessment done for Summit County by the Root Policy Group, is a comprehensive document taking into account local, state and federal data. 

While formulating the town’s goals for 2026-28 at the May 27 meeting, officials raised concerns about this key document. 



“We’ve got (workforce housing units) sitting unoccupied for a long time, but the assessment says we’re desperately in need,” council member Dick Carleton said, referencing the most recent 2023 housing needs assessment that said the town would need 1,171 units. 

Town Manager Shannon Haynes confirmed there were empty units and said the Gorman and Co. workforce housing development Vista Verde II currently has 12 vacant units. The units went live in the fall and came with a requirement mandating that occupants work in Summit County for a minimum of 30 hours a week.

Breckenridge Town Council members review the list of priorities for 2026-28 they jointly came up with at a May 27, 2025 meeting.
Kit Geary/ Summit Daily News

Gorman and Co. had to start scaling back that requirement to fill units. 

“After marketing the units for 30 days, the deed restriction allows leases to households that do not qualify as full-time workers in Summit County while remaining in compliance with the affordability requirements,” Gorman and Co. Colorado Market President Kimball Crangle said in an email.

Haynes said at the May 28 meeting that “price has a lot to do with” units being open. 

Carleton said he wanted to see broader research done beyond the housing assessment, suggesting looping in more market analysis related to rentals. Other council members shared the sentiment, which prompted Haynes to ask what type of data they were hoping to attain. 


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“I think it would be really great to be able to figure out how many families of two are looking or needing to look for a place to buy or rent … (and) how many families that need four bedrooms, and be able to be a little bit more precise with our product (we are building),” council member Jay Beckerman said. 

He said gathering data that more directly demonstrates needs like these in the community could better help inform the area median income brackets housing projects should target.

Locals have raised concerns about their ability to fit into area median income brackets since they work in industries where they can make tips and work overtime. This can create situations like one that occurred in the Vista Verde II development, where local workers said they were placed in a higher area median income bracket compared to their actual income, placing them in units with rents they could not realistically afford. 

Council member Todd Rankin said he wants to see a higher level roadmap officials could follow when carrying out housing goals. He shared worries about market-rate homes owned by locals being sold and becoming a short-term rental or a second home instead of going to another local worker. 

Council member Carol Saade said she was a part of a similar discussion at a Breckenridge Social Equity Advisory Commission meeting recently where conversations touched on using existing housing stock to help fill gaps. She said commissioners wanted to see incentives for downsizing for people whose children may no longer be living with them to free up units. She added they also pointed out holes in the town’s housing efforts.

“One point that came out is we really haven’t kept the best track of our housing programs,” she said. 

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