Steamboat Springs city officials met with Yampa Valley Housing Authority leaders, Mission Rock Residential representatives and Overland Property Group executives Wednesday morning to address persistent complaints about maintenance, cleanliness and compliance at three local YVHA-developed, Mission Rock-managed affordable housing projects. 

Nearly 150 people tuned into the meeting via Zoom, including city staff, current and former city councilors, county officials, YVHA board members, and staff and local residents. 

The 1.5-hour discussion focused on action plans, timelines and accountability amid resident outcry over “unacceptable” living conditions at properties including Alpenglow Village, Anglers Four Hundred and The Reserves, where tenants have described filthy common areas, chronic understaffing and frustratingly inconsistent enforcement of parking and occupancy rules.

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Muntean, the city’s ex-officio representative on the housing authority board, opened by underscoring that the purpose of the meeting is to find a collective — and immediate — plan to rectify tenant complaints, some of which have remained unresolved for as long as two years.

“The path forward to me includes coming up with some plans, some timelines, some metrics to measure progress, monthly reports that provide tangible proof of that progress, and really who’s accountable for specific action plans,” said Muntean.

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“I must say that we — the city, and the community, the housing authority … don’t have any patience to maintain the status quo where things are today,” he added.

Muntean then invited Matt Gillam, managing partner for Overland, to make initial comments.

“We apologize we’re here under these circumstances, but the first thing I wanted you to hear out of our mouth is what you’ve seen is unacceptable,” said Gillam. “It’s unacceptable to us, it’s unacceptable to Mission Rock. We’re here to take accountability for that.”

“You’re not going to hear any deflection, you’re not going to hear anything other than accountability, because that’s what we believe in,” he continued. “We believe in action plans, tangible results, timelines. There’s a lot that we’ve already put into place, and there’s a lot of progress that’s already been made.”

Nailing down who’s responsible — and who was aware

Muntean kicked off the main discussion by asking for clarity around the hierarchy between YVHA, Mission Rock and Overland, and who is responsible for issues around negligence and compliance.

Gillam explained that Overland is owner, developer, guarantor and asset manager of the three properties, while Mission Rock is the day-to-day operator hired by Overland to handle compliance and maintenance. 

“Our role in this entire puzzle piece is we are at the top,” he said. “So when I say the buck stops with me, it does.” 

“We are also financially the ones at risk,” he added, noting that the housing authority is not a guarantor and therefore not at risk financially. “The housing authority and Overland Property Group are partners on this deal, but related to their role as a special limited partner, those roles and responsibilities, for the most part, were during the development process.”

He clarified that if Mission Rock was to fail in ensuring compliance, as both community members and city leaders have alleged, the responsibility lies on Overland — not YVHA. 

Routt County Commissioner Angelica Salinas, the county’s ex-officio representative on the YVHA board, asked Gillam to further confirm where the lines are drawn regarding who is accountable for management and compliance failures.

“Just to clarify, the Yampa Valley Housing Authority cannot legally step in and hire their own property management company,” she said. “We cannot legally step in and do the things that (Overland) or Mission Rock are not doing, or that we think you’re not doing.” 

“That’s correct, legally … per our agreements,” Gillam responded. 

Mission Rock CEO Meredith Wright then explained that the property management company’s lack of direct action to solve tenant complaints ultimately came down to a lack of awareness of the severity of staffing issues.

“Our mistake here is that we were not aware that the team was really struggling and didn’t react, because we didn’t know that these struggles were happening here,” said Wright, drawing pushback from Salinas.

“I’ve printed every email that YVHA has sent to Mission Rock and OPG (in the last two years). 
It’s pretty thick here,” she said. “So to say that you were unaware — I’m struggling to understand how you could be unaware.”

Wright responded that “we will never be in an appropriate scenario.” 

“Property management is kind of the business of constantly trying to adjust and address issues,” said Wright. “So our goal is to do the very best we can and to ensure that we’re addressing things, that we’ll be aware of them and solve for them.” 

Muntean pressed further and directed the focus back to Overland Property Group, asking why they would let these issues perpetuate for so long without resolution. 

“As to why it’s taken so long after things have been flagged from not only YVHA, but even us internally — I can’t answer,” admitted Gillam. “What I can tell you, looking in the rearview mirror, those … failures are very, very troubling, and we have a lot of unpacking to do to figure those things out.” 

“We have 138 people online listening to this, and I know what most of them are thinking,” said Muntean. “They’re thinking, ‘These guys haven’t done the job in years, and here we are sitting down talking to them, and we should have gotten rid of them.'”

“If we’re not happy with Mission Rock, what options do we have?” he asked. “Because there’s people who will tell you that we should have a local property management company doing this.”

Gillam outlined the checklist that comes along with hiring a property management company for a LIHTC property, including lender approval, investor approval and state agency approval, leaving Overland a short list of options for properties in Steamboat Springs.

“We cannot hire a local management company. They won’t get qualified. They don’t have the experience in the compliance side specifically of this business,” he said. “So when you say, ‘What are our options?’ — to be frank, we don’t have any.”

Staffing challenges and lease compliance

The conversation moved to staffing shortages at Mission Rock, a significant contributing factor in the variety of maintenance and compliance concerns raised by tenants.

“I think everyone knows some of the challenges with labor and finding qualified people that are able to do the work in Steamboat is just a challenge,” said Wright. 

She cited a summer medical leave leaving the five-person team short-staffed across three properties. 

Current staffing includes three on-site property management employees (down one) and two maintenance workers across the three sites, supplemented by vendors for services like snow removal and landscaping. 

Muntean suggested incentives like on-site units.

“We have increased the pay scale very substantially to try to accomplish more,” said Gillam, “but to be very honest, (staffing) is one of our biggest problems.”

The maintenance workload sparked debate. Muntean said he found one worker fielding seven to 10 daily calls; Mission Rock countered that its data showed 2.5 combined requests daily across the properties.

Following recent outcry from tenants, cleaning commitments have shifted from biweekly to weekly at Anglers, with daily photo checklists, video inspections and increased visits now required, said Gillam. 

Gillam also acknowledged tenant concerns about residents who are not on leases who may be living at these properties, either as unauthorized occupants, subletters or short-term rental guests, potentially exacerbating maintenance and parking issues. 

“If there are any instances of that happening, it is a zero-tolerance situation, because that puts this in jeopardy as far as the financing and the compliance,” said Gillam, who urged tenants to come forward with specific details regarding their suspicions. 

Regarding security issues, Gillam said they are working toward 24/7 locked doors at Anglers with magnetic locks, prompted after unannounced walkthroughs — including by Gillam himself — revealed vulnerabilities. 

On parking — an issue that drew public comment to City Council last month from Alpenglow resident Laura Armstrong — Gillam conceded that Overland and Mission Rock “have not done a good job of managing the parking situation.”

Parking management will improve going forward via signage, digital guest passes, permit monitoring and booting (with separate monitoring per Colorado law), said Gillam and Mission Rock representatives.

Next steps: Open houses and a ‘detailed action plan’ due next week

Moving forward, Gillam said that Overland will host open houses at Anglers, Alpenglow and The Reserves in approximately two weeks, accessible to the public, “so the community can verify what they actually look like.” 

“I don’t expect you to just take my word for it, because we haven’t earned that right. We’ve failed here,” he said. “So I want the entire community to come and see the progress.”

YVHA Executive Director Jason Peasley sought specifics on reporting and verification. 

The folks in the room ultimately agreed to Overland’s submission of a detailed action plan highlighting tangible solutions and metrics to solve tenant concerns, which Gillam said will be completed and sent to city and YVHA leadership by Jan. 21.

Correspondence will be sent to residents of all three properties regarding forthcoming improvements. Those communications will also urge tenants to be “good neighbors” and to do their part in keeping spaces clean. 

Mission Rock representatives added that there will be “daily touch points” between employees working on-site at the properties and a regional manager that oversees the employees directly, including  “running notes of what they need, where we’ve been, of where we’re going, in addition to increased either bi-weekly or monthly in-person visits, where we are putting eyes on every single asset, ensuring that everything is to the standard that it needs to be.”

Overland also hired a new quality control specialist for biweekly, unannounced checks.

“Would it be reasonable — if we’re back in this position in six months — that YVHA can make a complaint to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority?” asked Barnes. 

“One hundred percent,” replied Gillam. 
”If they’re in this position in three months, they can make a complaint to (the authority).”