CHEYENNE — Last February, the Wyoming Community Development Authority published its statewide housing needs assessment for the state of Wyoming. This report showed Wyoming’s housing development was not on track to keep up with the state’s anticipated growth.
In June, WCDA connected with Abt Global, a research and consulting firm, to begin work on a detailed plan outlining strategies Wyomingites can take to get ahead of the issue.
On Thursday, representatives from Abt Global presented their findings, summarizing a 111-page final report, which is available on WCDA’s website.
Additionally, for those not as eager to thumb through the full report, Abt Global created a local policy tool that lets interested parties learn more about the best strategies to address housing policy on the local level. The tool is an interactive map that allows users to select a subsection of different counties across the state and lists all the suggestions Abt Global believes are best suited for that area based on factors like affordability, population, median home cost and geography.
The housing action plan was assembled based on interviews with representatives of key stakeholder groups in the state, two public housing forums, a review of more than 100 state and local housing documents, and an online survey, with responses from 114 additional stakeholders.
“This is the beginning of the work, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us, but this is the groundwork for that for the future,” said WCDA Executive Director Scott Hoversland.
According to WCDA’s statewide housing needs assessment, Wyoming must add between 2,070 and 3,860 units per year between 2024 and 2030. In 2023, only 1,681 units were added. This means developers in the state must increase production by 23% to 130% to meet the anticipated demand.
Abt Global’s action plan breaks down the best strategies to accomplish this goal and outlines how and when each item can be addressed while also keeping the values of Wyomingites in mind.
The four strategies
The first strategy outlined to achieve this goal is to expand resources available for housing and infrastructure development.
In its survey, Abt Global found that 70% of respondents said high development costs and limited state and local funding for development are top barriers to meeting housing needs.
To address this, Abt Global suggests increasing funding for housing development. This could be done by creating a flexible housing development fund, which is a fund to support local needs, including grants, low-cost loans, credit guarantees or other forms of financial assistance. Abt Global Senior Associate Stephen Whitlow said Wyoming is one of only three states in the country that doesn’t have this kind of fund set up.
Another way to increase those funds is by empowering localities to raise revenues for housing. This could include things like creating a special purpose excise tax, expanding local flexibility to use revenue from the short-term rental tax, instituting a real estate transfer tax or fee on home sales over $1 million or those who own second homes in Wyoming, and expanding localities’ ability to use tax increment financing to spur housing development.
This first strategy must also be addressed by pursuing targeted infrastructure expansion.
The report says this can be done by expanding the Wyoming Grants Assistance Program to provide technical assistance for localities to pursue loans, as well as grants, creating regional councils, providing more grant funding for smaller communities, and conducting a statewide feasibility assessment of water capacity for new housing and job growth.
The second strategy is to expand and preserve homebuyers’, homeowners’ and renters’ access to safe, quality and affordable housing.
To support homebuyers and homeowners, Abt Global suggests providing funding for home repair and retrofits for qualifying homeowners, expanding Habitat for Humanity’s Habitat Repair program, and growing opportunities for affordable homeownership, such as starter homes or manufactured homes.
To support renters, Abt Global suggests the state provide funding for rehab and rental assistance, particularly to help prevent homelessness, and offer eviction prevention support.
A third strategy in the report is to reduce new regulatory and land access barriers to new housing development.
One way to do this is by supporting localities in identifying and addressing regulatory barriers to the development of starter and “missing middle” homes. An example Abt Global provided is the updates and amendments the city of Cheyenne made to its unified development code in 2024 with the goal of making it easier and more attractive for developers to construct in Cheyenne.
Another way to accomplish this goal could be by ensuring resident input in community growth while reducing barriers to housing development. This may include pre-approved housing plans that developers can choose from without having to get city council approval on an individual basis.
“Still having the community be involved in that sort of design process, if you will, but doing it on less of an individual project basis and thinking about it more holistically,” Whitlow said.
An additional item Whitlow suggested is to reform Wyoming’s protest petition process so that a small number of people can’t hold up as many development projects.
The fourth and final strategy outlined in the report is to build capacity among public and private actors.
Samaa Eldadah, a representative from Abt Global, said one way to do this is by providing and promoting localities’ access to funding opportunities. This could include things like developing a central housing information and technical assistance website and promoting the Wyoming Grant Assistance Program.
“We’re consistently finding that information is just scattered across multiple agencies. Websites might not be up to date, might not be well advertised, and local government staff, especially in smaller towns, don’t have the time for that,” Eldadah said.
Another way to accomplish this goal is by addressing gaps in the housing industry workforce. Eldadah suggested easing access to training and licensing to incentivize more skilled trade workers to live and work in Wyoming, as some surrounding states currently provide better opportunities for these workers.
She also suggested assessing opportunities for the state to expand modular housing construction and manufactured housing.
“If it’s done right, modular and manufactured housing development can be a tool to provide the kinds of needed year-round employment opportunities, and then also, similarly, address the limited population of developers, skills trades workers,” Eldadah said. “On the housing side, (this would) achieve the kinds of cost efficiencies and production that we want, reducing those housing costs because the housing gets developed in a facility in bulk.”
Ultimately, the state and its communities will need to determine which strategies to pursue first. Abt Global has vaguely outlined which ones should be prioritized in the report and the timeline to expect some of these potential changes to roll out as Wyoming’s legislative session kicks off next week.