New Mexico is a popular destination for retirees and vacationers, yet its economy is struggling. Eighty percent of the population is unable to afford a median-priced home. In Santa Fe, housing costs are 47 percent above the national average, while incomes fall 22 percent below the national average. More than 60 percent of New Mexicans who live in extremely run-down, rural communities, known as Colonias, lack basic infrastructure such as water and sewer systems.
Through the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust, an Enterprise partner, Benjamin and Vanessa Sandoval purchased an affordable home in a neighborhood that their families have called home for generations. Photo: Mike Elliott
Accomplishments
Enterprise has invested nearly $50 million in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and southern New Mexico over the past 14 years to help:
Develop 1,600 affordable homes through financial and technical support to more than a dozen community-based organizations.
Establish the Tierra Contenta Corporation to develop a 1,000-acre planned community in Santa Fe where 1,500 houses and apartments are affordable to low-income families.
Establish an affordable housing trust fund initially capitalized with $10 million in state general funds.
Create a statewide supportive housing development corporation to develop housing for people with disabilities in rural and underserved communities.
Success Story
By the early 1990s, low-income families in Santa Fe were being displaced by an alarming affordable housing shortage. While the city was attracting wealthy second-home buyers and retirees, the cost of housing skyrocketed until 80 percent of the city’s population could no longer afford a median-priced home.
In 1993, the nonprofit Tierra Contenta Corporation was created, with the assistance of the city of Santa Fe and Enterprise, to manage the development of a new 1,000-acre mixed-income community. By the end of 2003, approximately 15 builders had constructed nearly 1,400 homes and apartments with 725 occupied by low-income families. The new community, to be built over 25 years, will be home to nearly 10,000 residents and include schools, retail shops, office space and recreational and community facilities.
With 40 percent of the housing reserved for low-income families, it is an innovative model for developing mixed-income housing in a suburban setting. Enterprise New Mexico continues to be a supportive partner in this major initiative.
