NEED FOR RENTALS
ALTUS – City officials are working with a private builder to enhance Altus’ housing supply, which is limited because of retiring civilian employees at Altus Air Force Base, according to a study conducted in 2020.
As a result of the housing needs assessment, city officials opted to partner with Altus builder Jed Winters on a 56-unit, single-story townhome project that will be built less than a mile from the base.
The project’s plans will be submitted to the Altus Planning Commission sometime in April. City Manager Gary Jones said he hopes a project groundbreaking can occur this summer.
“There will be an option for 56 more (units) and lots will be available for that,” Jones said.
The study, which focused primarily on rental homes, apartments and townhouses, uncovered a limited supply of these types of housing within an affordable price range. According to the study, about 270 maintenance mechanics will be needed at the base to replace retirees who intend to stay in Altus. In addition, about 75 simulator contract employees are still being recruited to work at the base.
“Those who replace them (retirees) will need housing,” Jones said. “There are a lot of people who live other places because they can’t find places to live in Altus.”
Altus Air Force Base is the premier Air Mobility training location in the U.S. Air Force with about 1,400 military members, 1,460 civilians and 270 contractors. On average, about 400 students are in training at any given time, according to the study.
Affordable housing
New rental housing must also be affordable, according to the study, which shows the median gross income for households in Altus is $39,780 a year, or $3,315 a month. The median rent in the city is $727 a month.
The study shows households that pay more than 30% of their gross incomes are considered to be rent overburdened. In Altus, a household making less than $2,423 a month or $29,076 per year would be considered overburdened when renting an apartment at or above the median rent.
As of the 2019 U.S. Census, about 41% of households that rent are overburdened in Altus, the housing study shows.
Winters, the builder selected for the 56-unit project, said the townhouses will be a mix of one, two and three-bedrooms primarily for military personnel and civilians who work at the base.
“We’re short on rental housing,” Winters said. “I believe these will be for a certain paygrade of personnel. It’s been almost 20 years since a multi-family project has been built and it’s exciting to be a part of that plan.”
During the past eight years, the rental rates in Altus have fluctuated, but most recently, rental rates have been trending upward at a rapid rate. In 2012, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment was $620. The rental rate dipped to $580 in 2018, but quickly escalated to $773 in 2020, the housing study shows.
“Low vacancy appears to be putting significant pressure on the long-term rental housing supply and upward pressure on rents,” the study’s authors wrote.
There are four low-income housing communities with 186 apartments in Altus, but two of those cater to residents 62 and older, which makes for an even more limited supply of housing for younger residents. At the same time, Altus features 166 income-based apartments where the tenants pay no more than 30% of their income towards rent and utilities.
There are also 10 rent-subsidized apartments that do not provide direct rental assistance but remain affordable to low-income households in Altus.
Only six of 1,793 multi-unit apartments or town homes in Altus were vacant in the spring of 2020. Of those six, only two were less than $700 a month or considered affordable for this area. The six available apartments for rent equate to less than a 1% vacancy rate for multi-unit rentals, the study found.
The study’s authors recommended the city consider additional areas that may be appropriate for residential density.
“Strategies include up-zoning in residential zones or allowing housing in commercial zones (either through the adaptive reuse of existing buildings or through changing regulations within these zones to allow for more residential uses and mixed uses as appropriate),” the study’s authors wrote. “Given the rising cost of housing in Altus, it is likely that there will be a growing demand for housing that is denser and more affordable than the traditional single-family developments."