Homeless/Unhoused Workers in Ski Towns

jamesdeluxe said:

Can anyone clarify the subsidy part of the equation?

"Mr. Aerenson, a retired lawyer and a ski instructor at Breckenridge, estimates that it costs the town $150,000 in subsidies to build a single unit of affordable housing, a process that takes years even when the funds are available."

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My oldest friend actually works at the home office here in Madison (Oregon) WI. One aspect of their business is housing in high dollar areas for the workforce at seasonal places like ski resorts. I do not remember all the nuts and bolts, but they source government housing grants and then use those themselves for projects and or "re-loan" them to other developers.
We were in Telluride a few years ago and after some beers he made us walk past and inspect a vacant lot that they had their eyes on so he could call it a "business trip"

But the Northwest has an active parking lot culture

jnelly said:

We were in Telluride a few years ago and after some beers he made us walk past and inspect a vacant lot that they had their eyes on so he could call it a "business trip"

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Hopefully doesn't get audited, because the IRS will be all over that kind of stuff in a heartbeat. Trip would have to be almost entirely about biz and only biz to actually expense as a biz trip. And nearly all of those types of precedents in IRS code have long since been adjudicated in court.

EMSC said:

the IRS will be all over that kind of stuff in a heartbeat.

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Will be interesting to see the number of audits that the IRS willl be able to carry out with a third of its staff already gone and likely many more to come. Per Reuters:

The IRS had about 100,000 employees when President Donald Trump began his second White House term on January 20. Approximately 22,000 employees have accepted deferred resignation offers from the Trump administration, according to sources. This represents a significant portion of the IRS workforce and is part of a larger trend of federal workforce reduction. Additionally, about 7,000 probationary employees were laid off earlier, and an additional 5,000 have left in the past three months.

EMSC said:

Hopefully doesn't get audited, because the IRS will be all over that kind of stuff in a heartbeat. Trip would have to be almost entirely about biz and only biz to actually expense as a biz trip. And nearly all of those types of precedents in IRS code have long since been adjudicated in court.

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eh, 100% sure he was being facetious.

While quite a few of the larger destination resorts in the Rockies have built, are building, or plan to build housing for employees, you don't hear about that idea as much in the east.

Taos Ski Valley bought the three motel-style lodges a couple miles from the base as employee housing. The first was bought two years before the pandemic. My friends and I had reservations and got a call in the fall, so had to shift next door. The third was bought more recently and the old building was torn down (wasn't in good shape). Construction wasn't finished for 2024-25. As TSV continues to move towards being a 4-season resort, having good employee housing is that much more important. There is very little private land to build anything in the village of TSV.

TSV also runs a big bus for employees to commute from Taos. The public bus from town only ran Wed-Sun during the ski season.

jnelly said:

eh, 100% sure he was being facetious.

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Maybe so as I certainly don't know them. My comment comes from having interacted with many people who will say something offhand like this and when you ask they actually believe a 10 minute business interaction on a week long fun trip allows them to put the whole trip against their business costs. You'd be surprised how much mis-information is out there on such topics.

jamesdeluxe said:

Will be interesting to see the number of audits that the IRS willl be able to carry out with a third of its staff already gone and likely many more to come.

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Certainly hate the manner in which Musk and Trump are doing many (many) things. That said the US gov't should have been getting way more efficient starting long ago. Trillion dollar deficits are fine for the country who has the worlds reserve currency right up until very suddenly it's not; and then there becomes hell to pay (fortunately not there just yet, but could be in the next 10-15 years easily at current pace). That said, 'fixing' that issue takes more than 1-3 months of random stupidity and willy-nilly firings and 'stuff'.

EMSC said:

the US gov't should have been getting way more efficient starting long ago.

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Yes, this administration is asking the right questions about many things but coming up with nutso "solutions" -- shoot first, ask questions later.