With about two weeks before it’s officially the 2021-22 winter season, Aspen Skiing Co. is hatching a new plan to hopefully incentivize those with rooms to spare to open their homes to the myriad would-be employees who have yet to find housing.
“The program offers incentives to homeowners willing to rent a unit, a guest house, an ADU, a mother-in-law unit or even an extra bedroom to an Aspen Snowmass employee. This incentive is available for new leases only and that take effect after Nov. 11,” the announcement explains.
The incentives in question are significant, too.
“Homeowners and landlords who are for their first time leasing a room to an Aspen Skiing Company employee for the ski season can choose as their incentive either a full season’s pass, 10 single-day lift ticket vouchers, or a $1,200 gift certificate valid for any Aspen-Snowmass product,” it continues. “This could include meals or rooms at the Aspen and Snowmass Limelight Hotels and The Little Nell, ski gear or rentals at Four Mountain Sports, ski and snowboard lessons, or any of Aspen-Snowmass’ on-mountain dining options.”
It’s not the first time SkiCo has launched the “Tenants for Turns,” Vice President of Communications Jeff Hanle said Thursday, but it’s the first time the program has been as expansive as this.
“We did something like this once before a few years back, not to this extent. We did something called Tenants for Turns, and it was not this elaborate or this widespread,” he said. “I don’t want to say desperate times call for desperate measures — they call for creative measures to solve these issues that we’re facing, and we thought this may move the needle for some people.”
Of course, it’s not just the lack of inventory that is contributing to the housing crunch in the area — it’s also the price of rent on existing options. Hanle assured that there are safeguards in place to ensure participants in the program aren’t also participating in price gouging. In order to take advantage of the incentives, a prospective landlord has to first enter into an agreement with a SkiCo employee as a tenant.
“The small print, basically, it says you have to come to an agreement with one of our employees. We have a list of employees looking for housing,” he said. “People can pay what they can afford. We’re throwing this $1,200 in to incentivize people to come up with an affordable rate for people — maybe that will push it over the finish line for them.”
It’s the latest initiative in a bigger-picture, long-term strategic plan SkiCo has pursued in offsetting the crisis in affordable housing. The county’s largest employer invested close to $19 million in what became The Hub at Willits, a 53,000-square-foot apartment complex with 43 units boasting a total 150 beds that opened in May.
“We’ve made good progress on adding beds to our employee-housing inventory, but we’re still getting outpaced by the problem,” SkiCo Chief Human Resources Officer Jim Laing said in a statement. “Skiers and business owners the whole length of the valley — and, of course, guests to our resort community — all benefit when our ski areas are operating with optimal staffing. We’re hoping this program will entice people with a bedroom that has gone unrented in the past to rent it for a few months to an employee.”
SkiCo encourages interested homeowners or landlords to to call the SkiCo human resources department, 970-300-7700, which will be able to match a prospective landlord with an employee seeking housing, as well as detail the terms of the program.
“Lease terms will be up to the lessor and employee, but will need to contain certain basic parameters to trigger the incentive package upon verification of the lease by Aspen Skiing Company,” the announcement notes.
Hanle said that the matching component of the program accomplishes more than facilitating rents that employees can afford — it also creates an opportunity to make sure a would-be tenant is a good fit for the situation in terms of lifestyle and personality. All in all, the program has been months in the making.
“We saw [the housing crisis] coming; we hoped that it wouldn’t be as bad as it is, but it is, so we’ve been working through the logistics of this,” he said. “It hopefully will be enough for some people to say, ‘You know what? I’ve got that extra bedroom in there, and now I’ve got a new pair of skis.”
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November 12, 2021 at 05:00PM
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