I have a suggestion for the Breckenridge Town Council: Instead of using a club to try to solve our workforce housing problem, why not try a few carrots?

I have rented to locals for the past 15 years. On two of those occasions my unit was trashed, and on a third occasion the renter skipped out on six months rent (it was the middle of winter and they had a 3-year-old child). Last year, we went with a management company out of sheer frustration. We made more during the ski season than the entire year previously. If our place was damaged, a single phone call resulted in immediate compensation with no questions. The expense and hassle of eviction is not even a factor. On purely financial grounds, we’d be foolish to go back to long-term renting, but life is not just about profit.

My suggestion is simple and less expensive than using our tax dollars to buy up properties: Establish a housing agency that will match my short-term rental management company’s damage policy and will fund and expedite any eviction if necessary.

Fund that agency through an assessment on those “exempt” entities. It’s rather cheeky for our elected representatives to try to solve this problem on the backs of small businessmen only. Add a multiplier to those that maintain a front desk with a sign that reads, “Back at 7 a.m.”

Perhaps use all our tax dollars, saved from not investing in real estate, to subsidize our underpaid workforce so that they can afford to live here, while allowing property owners the ability to realize fair market value for converting to workforce housing.

Some may call this a “win-win.” I call it “carrots for everyone.”