State Housing Board Awards Grant to build Living Wisdom Village!

At last, all of us at CPCH are delighted to report that the State Housing Board has awarded Crestone Peak Community Housing a grant of $4,533,029 for the construction of Living Wisdom Village! With the capital stack now complete, CPCH is finalizing steps to begin construction of the village, and a start date of July 10th is anticipated. Delays are still being experienced in the supply chain and it’s difficult to estimate when the project will be completed, but we currently anticipate the project will be ready for residency no later than April 2024. For those of you who are on the LWV interest list, CPCH will send out pre-applications to you in August or September.

The CPCH board and our Executive Director Akia Tanara are so appreciative to all of you for the variety of ways you have supported this project and encouraged each of us; our combined contributions have led to this success. Well done and thank you, everyone! We can finally get this affordable senior housing village built.

Check out the LWV Article in the Crestone Eagle!

"While it may not seem like a lot has been happening with the Living Wisdom Village project, the nonprofit Crestone Peak Community Housing (CPCH) developing it has been busy behind the scenes getting it closer to reality." Read the entire article here.

July 2022 Update

CPCH had anticipated breaking ground for Living Wisdom Village in August 2022, once receiving confirmation from the state of full funding from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. The states’ rollout of this process has been slow, and the last update I’ve heard is that applications for funding will become available in August/September, with funds distributed in October/November. Although this delay is frustrating for the board, applicants, and contractors, the availability of this funding will allow LWV to be built with no long-term debt, and rents can be truly affordable for seniors with 30% to 80% AMI (area-median income). Most applicants on the LWV waitlist have only $700 - $1,100 monthly social security income.

CPCH has continued to raise money to close the construction funding gap, receiving over $120K in private donations and $155K in grants between January and June! We are so appreciative of your continued support of and commitment to this project. Every dollar we raise strengthens our competitiveness for the state grants.

The community center design has been amended to increase the main meeting/dining/entertainment space from ~620 sf to ~1050 sf and to incorporate a craft room of ~230 sf (updated design attached). Design for an emergency generator to power the community center during extended outages was also added during this upgrade. A scope of work to add solar PV arrays to all structures has been approved by the board and we anticipate that this significant upgrade will be fully funded, adding both financial and environmental benefits for future residents. The project is shovel-ready.

The tentative revised construction schedule has ground-breaking occurring this year, with completion of the project by June 2023. There are two unknown factors in this schedule:

• When ARPA funds will be disbursed

• Supply chain issues

When CPCH begins construction, a communication will be sent to everyone on the waitlist to learn if you are still seeking housing at Living Wisdom Village. Positive responders will then be mailed an application package.

The 2021 audit has been completed, with the CPA stating that the audit was ‘clean, easy, and uncomplicated’; those are words I love to hear regarding an audit. Reflecting to 2018, when the LWV Committee was seated as the CPCH board of directors, CPCH ended 2018 with total revenue of $15,766 and total assets of $1,335. Just three years later, CPCH ended 2021 with total revenue of $502,581 and total assets of $817,957. This is such an impressive story for a non-profit in Crestone to be telling! CPCH has a hard working, committed team of community leaders driving this project.

CPCH is still in need of financial support, both to cover monthly operational expenses, and to increase our contribution towards construction costs on state grant applications. Thank you in advance for your continued partnership in bringing affordable housing for seniors to the Crestone community.