Tahoe is facing a workforce housing crisis. A recent community survey led by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) revealed that two-thirds of Tahoe Basin residents struggle to afford housing. These are the workers who keep Tahoe running year-round: staffing our hospitals, maintaining our infrastructure, educating our children, responding to emergencies, and supporting our tourism economy.
When workers are priced out of the Basin, daily commuting becomes unavoidable. That influx of vehicles worsens congestion on already overburdened roads and degrades the quality of life for residents and visitors. More cars also means more pollution and more runoff from roadways flowing into the lake.
On its surface, it can seem like this is a simple housing supply problem. While it’s true there is a lack of access to affordable housing for many people who work in Tahoe and others who live here with limited incomes — like seniors and people with disabilities — the reality is more nuanced. Tahoe doesn’t have enough affordable housing to accommodate our local workers; too many existing units are used by tourists or as second homes that sit empty.
The numbers are dramatic. Of the 49,000 housing units in the Tahoe Basin, roughly half are occupied year-round, while the other half sit empty or are used as vacation rentals. And of all the housing in the Basin, only 707 units are deed-restricted — apartments, townhomes, and condos guaranteed to be rented below market rate to qualifying tenants. Building more housing without deed restrictions is most likely to support additional luxury housing, not the workforce housing we need.
Another reason simply increasing housing supply will not work in Tahoe is the lake itself. More density without stringent water-quality protections results in more runoff flowing into the lake. Loosening development standards to accommodate more construction will create more problems for the lake, a national treasure that deserves protection.
TRPA just kicked off an environmental review to examine policies to increase workforce housing. That process may sound technical, but its implications are anything but abstract. The decisions made now will determine not only where and how people live here, but also how well we protect the lake in the effort to meet our workforce housing needs.
The last time TRPA conducted a full-scale environmental review of development impacts in the Basin in 2012, it set a hard growth cap on the number of housing units that could be built here without compromising lake clarity. Of the 52,000 potential units, only about 3,000 remain unbuilt. That’s why it’s critical for the environmental review process to examine not only which types of units can be built and where, but also how the housing we already have can better serve year-round residents.
By focusing on adaptive reuse and programs like downpayment assistance to help people access existing homes, TRPA can address housing needs without sacrificing the lake. Most importantly, TRPA must narrowly focus its incentives to make it less expensive for developers to build housing that meets the needs of our workforce through deed restrictions and other tailored policies and programs.
TRPA will examine a wide range of issues as part of the environmental impact statement, and the scoping period just kicked off. The agency’s decision-makers need to hear from the community to understand priorities and concerns. To learn more about the issues and to add your voice, go to mountainareapreservation.org/the-housing-tahoe-needs.
~ Alexis Ollar is the executive director of Mountain Area Preservation, an environmental and workforce-housing advocacy organization based in Tahoe/Truckee, working since 1987 to advocate for the environment and community.
