Southwest Colorado housing policy should not leave out the private builders who could put homes within reach of local families, Naomi says in a new op-ed published in the Rocky Mountain Voice.
Naomi focuses on House Bill 26-1001, signed into law in March, which creates a special administrative path for housing on certain properties owned by public entities or qualifying nonprofits. Her question: why should a private owner willing to build homes local workers can afford be left out? She would let local governments offer a predictable review process to private owners proposing smaller, lower-cost homes, while keeping local decisions about lot sizes, density, and infrastructure.
She also asks the state to look at its own role in housing costs. Naomi points to 2025’s Senate Bill 25-131, the Reducing the Cost of Housing bill introduced by Republican Sen. Paul Lundeen, which included a requirement that local energy-code provisions be cost-effective. The bill did not pass, but Naomi says its central question deserves an answer before lawmakers add another requirement: what will this do to the price of a home, and are the benefits worth the cost?
Naomi explains the difference between “affordable housing,” which is built with public support and reserved for buyers or renters within income limits, and “attainable housing,” a home whose price and monthly costs fit a local household’s income without a housing program. She says private builders are not choosing to build only expensive homes because working families do not matter. Land, construction, financing, permits, and utility connections have become so costly that a modest home may not pencil out.
On infrastructure, she notes that water, sewer, and roads are already a constraint in parts of Archuleta County, and that San Juan County faces similar challenges. Naomi wants providers to identify available capacity, needed connections, and upgrades before more homes are approved, with new projects paying the costs they create. She would also bring property owners, private builders, utility providers, and local governments together to identify buildable sites and the barriers holding back smaller homes, duplexes, and fourplexes. Her test is homes completed and what local people actually pay.
Read the full op-ed at Rocky Mountain Voice.
Learn more about Naomi’s priorities for Southwest Colorado.