New Mexico housing leaders outline legislative agenda at Rural Housing Summit

At an event focused on rural housing challenges, New Mexico lawmakers and housing experts on Friday discussed measures the Legislature will consider at the upcoming session, including new tax credits and building incentives for developers.

State Rep. Anita Gonzales (D-Las Vegas) helped organize the inaugural Rural Housing Summit in Las Vegas to highlight housing challenges particular to rural areas. She represents a district that lost hundreds of homes to the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire in 2022, followed by damaging floods and high rates of insurers refusing to renew area homeowners policies. 

“Our markets are just very different than you see in the urban cities,” she told attendees Friday. “As you all know, housing is the crux of so many things.” 

Rural areas have other housing challenges separate from natural disasters and insurance non-renewals, according to recent analyses. Rural counties collectively lack thousands of affordable ownership and rental units; are experiencing rising homelessness; and contain high concentrations of aging housing stock. 

The Legislature, in recent years, has dedicated historic sums of one-time funding for various housing-related projects across the state. Amanda Breiding, the budget director for the New Mexico House of Representatives, estimated in a presentation Friday that the Legislature has allocated $870 million to housing between 2024 and 2026, which is more than three times the amount the Legislature approved in the preceding decade.

About 40% of the recent housing funding has gone to rural communities, Breiding said. 

Despite the increased funding, lawmakers and experts said more needs to be done to ensure affordable housing gets built and gets built in the areas where it is most needed.

Some of the proposals lawmakers and experts laid out Friday included:

• a property tax credit for developers who turn vacant or abandoned properties into homes;
• long-term property tax relief for developers who reserve 20% of new units for low-income renters;
• making municipal land transfers easier for new housing projects; and
• incentives for towns and counties that adopt zoning changes that facilitate housing construction.

Gonzales said Friday she intends to introduce the bill establishing the vacant and abandoned property tax credit, as well as one that aims to give homeowners more transparency about the models insurance companies rely on to justify canceling policies. 

Sen. Cindy Nava (D-Albuquerque) told Source NM on Friday that she intends to introduce a bill at the upcoming session that would establish a statewide housing division within a state agency. 

The Department of Workforce Solutions currently oversees the state Office of Housing, but Nava said a better-staffer and -equipped division is necessary to ensure the state can effectively apply for and implement grant funding from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development and other funders.

“You’re able to accomplish 10 times more things if you have a built infrastructure where you bring all the game players to the table,” she said. “We haven’t had a hub like that where we bring everyone.”