Housing Action Plan

The Final Housing Action Plan was adopted by the Cortez City Council on August 8, 2023.

Housing Action Plans Goals

  • Goal 1:

    • Preserve, protect, revitalize, and maintain the quality and attainability of the community's existing housing stock.
      In summary, this goal aims to achieve the following.

  • Goal 2:

    • Increase the amount of housing produced in Cortez and encourage a diverse mix of housing types to improve housing availability and options for residents to best meet their needs.

  • Goal 3:

    • Focus new housing on the full range of incomes in need and for various life stages with priority placed on entry level rentals, first-time homeownership, missing middle, and supportive housing.

How will the City of Cortez achieve it's goals?

  • Education & Outreach

  • Collaborative Partnerships

  • Housing Rehabilitation & Weatherization

  • Adaptive Re-Use

  • Vacant Land Inventory

  • Attract Funds from Outside Cortez

  • Targeting Developer Engagement

  • Density & Use by Right

Common Housing Words & Acronyms

Word or Acronym
Definition & Description
AMI"Area Median Income" refers to the median (middle) income of a county. It is a common unit of measurement when discussion affordable housing. AMI is published annually by the Department for Housing & Urban Development.

The area median income for Montezuma County can be found on page 20 of the Housing Action Plan.

Affordable HousingAffordable Housing can mean a lot of different thing. In many Colorado state initiatives an "affordable" house for purchase is at or under 30% of the annual income for a person at 100% AMI. An affordable house for rent would mean 30% of the annual income, divided by 12 months, for a person at or below 60% AMI.

In Cortez, these data points can be interpreted as a house for sale being below $220,000 or $1,000 for rent.

Attainable Housing
Workforce Housing		These are both buzz-words that housing advocates use to describe "affordable housing." Sometimes, affordable housing can be equated with low-income housing. While this is an important feature of affordable housing policy, words like "workforce" or "attainable" reinforce the fact that affordable housing policy also concerns the "missing-middle" and housing for ALL residents.