Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.

It’s difficult to hang onto employees in Nederland when they can’t find a place to live. There are a few places to rent and the ones that are available have been priced with the “supply and demand” economy ethic.

Last Saturday at the Nederland Community Food Pantry, volunteers served 102 households in a two-hour period. Director Chris Current says that people are more in need of food than ever before because they are paying 85 percent of their monthly income to live in the town they love.

“That’s just wrong,” she says. “Each year I go through our files and this year I discovered that 77 households no longer are clients. They had to leave because of the lack of housing. Most places cost more to rent than they are making.”

Many senior citizens are being forced to move because their fixed income doesn’t allow for the higher rents in Nederland.

Kristi Vendetti, the Resource Liaison with Boulder County and the Emergency Family Assistance Association, has been trying to muster up interest in the new BC housing proposal.

The project was presented to the Nederland Town Planning Commission last year, but public opposition led the BC Housing project back to the drawing board. It had not been a good time for the proposal and residents objected to the number of units on the plans and the vacation of bordering property.

On February 28, 2018, the Boulder County Housing Authority will present a new plan to the Nederland Planning Commission: a 26-unit facility and a different parking configuration.

Vendetti handed out postcards depicting a local firefighter, teacher and family holding up signs saying, “Home Wanted”. The cards read: Please support Boulder County’s current proposal for 26 new below-market-rate workforce rental homes in downtown Nederland.

This is the right time and the right place for long-term affordable housing that is within reach for so many of us who need it.” She asks that people sign the card and send it back to the Nederland Town Board and Planning Commission, at PO Box 396, Nederland, 80466.

The card is also a plea to make housing available to employees, families and seniors as well teachers and emergency responders.

“We are trying to spread the word, help people who don’t have a voice,” says Vendetti.

Another concern about the project proposed last year is that the county would not prioritize Nederland residents. If the new project gets approved, it would receive a concession from HUD giving the town permission to prioritize.

The meeting will take place on February 28, 2018 at 7 p.m.