Incline Village and Crystal Bay’s Lease to Locals pilot program starts February
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. – Last Thursday, the Incline Village and Crystal Bay Community and Business Association, also known as IVCBA, hosted an informational meeting on unlocking housing stock in the area. That meeting coincided with the soon-to-launch Placemate Lease to Locals program, which will open in February.
Linda Offerdahl, executive director of the IVCBA, started off the first presentation of the series by discussing the importance of workforce housing. “The IVCBA has been working to create positive interaction and common ground on issues that can be controversial… Workforce housing includes not just service work, but teachers, nurses, doctors, and firefighters in our community.”
In spring 2024, the IVCBA also conducted a workforce housing series survey, where nearly 70% of people expressed their interest in unlocking existing housing stock for workforce housing.
Chase Janvrin, general manager of Placemate in the Tahoe region, spoke about the Lease to Locals program, which has already been implemented in Truckee, South Lake Tahoe, and Placer County. Incline Village and Crystal Bay would be the 11th community to join the program. Clare Novak, one of the IVCBA community outreach members, said, “[Placemate] is serving communities like ours,” as they focus on resort and tourist towns.
Janvrin thanked the meeting attendees for the support they provided to Placemate. “We’ve never had this much support before launch, which is really exciting,” he said.
The Lease to Locals program in the area would operate much like those already in the community: they provide either seasonal or long-term leases to people working in the area and an incentive to the property owners for renting it out. At least one adult in the household must be locally employed for 30 hours a week and cannot have a gross income greater than 200% of the area median income—which helps target the “missing middle” of the housing crisis in Tahoe.
Janvrin stated that a high percentage of homes in tourist communities are vacant second homes, which may remain empty for many months out of the year. That’s why the incentives for property owners aim to galvanize them into utilizing the housing space for more time in the year. These one-time payments are funded by Washoe County for Incline Village and Crystal Bay. Janvrin thanked Commissioner Alexis Hill for helping enable funds for the pilot.
“There is no other program out there with costs so modest to house people,” said Janvrin. Placemate will also be utilizing the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that have carried it through opening their last ten programs, though those funds must be completely spent by 2026. Incline Village and Crystal Bay have $216,000 allocated for them from these funds.
Though much of the logistics were completed late last year, Janvrin said they chose to launch the program in February to avoid holiday slowdowns. There will be an eight-month onboarding period and a 12-month compliance period, and the program is projected to unlock about 20 homes, with a total projected budget of $350,000 for the pilot program.
Since it is a pilot, Washoe County will be waiting on the results of Placemate’s program before they commit to further funding. But the IVCBA was clearly excited, planning to do outreach and bolster the success of the program. Other counties and cities are also evaluating the success of the program, though Janvrin stated that even without further incentives in South Lake Tahoe, 93% of property owners chose to renew their leases for their tenants.
IVCBA will be continuing their workforce housing series throughout 2025. Information and news about their housing programs can be found on their website at https://ivcba.org/programs/housing/.
Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.
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