Protecting a Vibrant, Not Vacant, South Lake Tahoe

If you could save the last incredible and nearly affordable mountain town from following in the ghost-town footsteps of Vail and Breckenridge, would you?

The thing is, we can — if we vote to pass the vacancy tax in South Lake Tahoe this November.

The vacancy rate in South Lake Tahoe is 44%, up from 33% in 2000. That’s more than 7,000 homes currently sitting empty for more than half of the year. When increases in vacancies outpace new construction, as they have since 2000, housing supply is constrained, prices soar, and locals are pushed out. This market-driven pattern gets worse each year, as it has in mountain towns across America.

To grasp where we are heading, the vacancy rate in Vail is now 67%, with nearby Breckenridge at 75% vacancy. Just 45 minutes from South Lake, the vacancy rate in Tahoe City has risen to a whopping 70%. Multiple friends of mine in dual-income households on the North Shore have spent sleepless nights worried they will have to pull their kids out of local schools because their landlords were selling their house and they couldn’t find anywhere else to live. The housing crisis has become so dire that Placer County is considering making it easier for local workers to live in their vehicles as a “solution.” This is what happens when we don’t act in time.

Our businesses suffer when houses sit empty. South Lake has lost 24% or nearly 4,000 working-aged adults. It has already become harder for local businesses to find staff, and more vacant homes also mean fewer regular customers shopping and dining on a daily and weekly basis. The result is an increasing reliance on snow to fall at exactly the right time in December to make up the deficit, which didn’t happen this past winter.

As much as our workforce has shrunk, the impact of the housing crisis has been worse on our families. South Lake’s school-aged population and school enrollment have both dropped by 36% since 2000. With school funding based primarily on enrollment rather than local property taxes, the loss of families has caused major issues for our school budgets — something that became very clear when the Lake Tahoe Unified School District pink slipped 10 teachers and administrators this spring.

Data released this spring showed 136 local school children are experiencing homelessness in our district. I see a lot of sympathy online for second homeowners, but have we considered the future we’re leaving our children?

The path we are on is unsustainable for our economy and future generations, but solutions are possible. A vacancy tax incentivizes the use of existing vacant properties while simultaneously generating tens of millions of dollars dedicated exclusively for new local housing, road repairs, and transit so locals can both have a place to live and safely get to work.

The City of South Lake Tahoe’s recent impartial analysis estimated the incentives and funding from the vacancy tax alone will increase local retail spending by up to $27 million per year, providing a massive boost to local restaurants and retail shops. The city estimates the policy will incentivize an additional 1,543 occupied homes, supporting some 2,300 more full-time residents, effectively replacing the population lost since 2000.

No one will pay the vacancy tax on a home they live in or a house they rent out. The tax applies only to residential units that sit vacant for the majority of the year, with exemptions for non-winterized properties, elderly residents in care facilities, wildland firefighters, and active-duty military, among others. As long as a home is occupied by an owner, tenant, guest, or any other person for more than six months throughout the year, consecutively or not, there is never a tax.

We are here to solve problems as a community — to consider meaningful, common-sense solutions that shift the market incentives to align with public benefit and protect the incredible community we all love from becoming a shell of itself.

If we act now, we can ensure South Lake Tahoe remains vibrant, not vacant. Donate or sign up to volunteer for the campaign at tahoevacancytax.com.

~ Amelia Richmond is a 15-year Lake Tahoe resident and co-founder of Locals for Affordable Housing. She is an appointed member of the City of South Lake Tahoe Parks & Recreation Commission, and a court-appointed special advocate for El Dorado County. Outside of her day job as a photo/film producer, she loves skiing, biking, street tacos, and hikes with her dog Ollie.