A crowd that included leaders from Park City, Summit County and the local business community gathered this weekend to salute the 25th anniversary of Mountainlands Community Housing Trust.
The hostess for the gathering, KPCW's own Leslie Thatcher, reviewed some of the numbers for the organization.
Mountainlands has built more than 200 for-sale houses, including 130 constructed by owners participating in the Housing Trust's self-help program. It owns over 280 affordable-rental units in Summit and Wasatch Counties, and it has assisted over 150 families with transitional housing.
Scott Loomis, who took over the organization some 17 and a half years ago, said the Housing Trust has had its challenges and frustrations.
"My first board meeting, after I’d been there for a couple of weeks in 2001, the topic was how are we going to make payroll on Friday?” Loomis continued, “Things have gotten slightly better. We had a project that we were trying to do. It was going to be a senior project here in Park City and we had three applications to do and everything’s very competitive and deadlines and somebody was going to donate some land for it. A week before he asks, ‘how am I going to get my tax credit?’ something that he’s never mentioned before, so kill that project. We had another project that we had going through the planning commission my first year here. We got a call on Wednesday from the planning staff saying we’re going to get a favorable recommendation your project is going to be approved. Friday the staff report comes out with a negative recommendation with two things that were not even discussed at the hearing, so another one shut down.”
But he said what makes the job worthwhile are the stories of people being helped, who have joined the fabric of the Park City community.
"You look at the people that do our self-help program where they work six-months to nine-months to help build their own homes with others.” Loomis said, “You see them out there everyday working and their very committed to getting home ownership, working very hard to do that. It’s not a handout at all. Our transitional housing program, we’ve had some who have gone through the program. One of them got a job as a teacher’s assistant, went back to college and is now a teacher here. We have artists that on Main Street galleries are showing their work. One of the better experiences, we had a first-year teacher that did the self-help program many years ago. He worked very hard and I went to an Ed Foundation event about 10 years after he completed his home and he was the teacher of the year at the high school. He was able to take that home and sell it and move into Park City Heights and get his wife and his four boys closer to where he works and he’s going to be a career teacher here in Park City.”
Loomis said they have 200 units in the pipeline for next year, and possibly for the year after that. They have been able to bring in some $70 million in state and federal grants to the area.
Loomis added that last week, he reached another hallmark--his 70th birthday.
"You know it’s hard to admit because I don’t feel that way.” Loomis explained,
“Somebody asked me the other day ‘why are you working so hard? Why don’t you just retire and enjoy life?’ and my answer was ‘I can’t imagine enjoying life any more than I am right now.’”
Also on Saturday, the Housing Trust announced they're giving out their award named for the late Bob Wells, an early supporter of the program.
The honoree was announced by Park City Council Member Tim Henney. He said that four years ago, the council decided, under the leadership of then-Mayor Jack Thomas, that affordable housing was a critical priority.
"The theme and the narrative that the recipient of the Bob Wells Award brought to affordable housing in Park City was about a whole and complete community.” Henney continued, “How affordable housing is the building block of a whole and complete community. We’ve also added something to that, and I want to let the recipient know this. We now have a whole and complete and healthy community that we’re talking about. When you think about affordable housing and how it addresses chronic stress and the fraying of our neighborhoods and it builds neighborhoods and it builds community. That’s the narrative that Jack Thomas brought to affordable housing in Park City.”
Accepting the honor, Thomas said the award belongs to everybody there.
"I’m very pleased to be here.” Thomas said, “It was important for me to be here and acknowledge all of the incredible people. The city councils, the staff, the individuals, the organizations throughout our community. By keeping this notion that to make us healthy we had to be inclusive, what a novel idea. Maybe that can echo upstairs somewhere.”
