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City of Las Cruces Housing and Neighborhood Services Manager Natalie Green and KT Homes LLC CEO Kent Thurston of Las Cruces have been appointed to the New Mexico Housing Investment Council, which Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham created by executive order May 23.
Other council members are former New Mexico House of Representatives speaker Brian Egolf of Santa Fe (chair), state Sen. Michael Padilla of Albuquerque, state Rep. Meredith Dixon of Albuquerque, Santo Domingo Tribal Housing Authority CEO Lorrie Chavez; Rachel Biggs of Strategic Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless, Disability Rights New Mexico Executive Director Gary Housepian of Albuquerque, Randy Traynor of Randy Traynor Associates in Albuquerque, New Mexico Interfaith Housing Executive Director Daniel Werwath of Santa Fe and Laura Long of Jorgensen Builders of Santa Fe.
The executive order directs the council “to develop a strategic housing investment plan that addresses gaps in available housing resources, inefficiencies in regulatory and zoning that impact housing development, workforce and business shortages in the housing development industries, the facilitation of public-private partnerships and more,” the governor’s office said in a news release.
“The council’s work begins at a crucial moment as average rent in the state has increased by 70 percent since 2017 but wages have only grown by 15 percent,” the news release said.
“The housing investment council presents an opportunity to work with housing experts and utilize best practices to develop a plan that tailored to the needs of all New Mexicans no matter what stage of the housing continuum from homelessness to homeownership they may be in,” Green said. “I look forward to representing local government and southern New Mexico in the efforts to solve the housing crisis through collaboration with the state, local governments, nonprofits and private partnerships.”
“There are a lot of things this council will help us out on,” Thurston said. “With this council and the ability to do it, you will see more people willing to invest in New Mexico because we won’t tie up their dollar as long.”
