When longtime Steamboat Springs local Bright Stevenson signed his lease at Anglers Four Hundred, he expected stable, reliable, well-managed housing in a community marketed to Routt County’s working class. 

Instead, he found “a disaster”: a unit that was not move‑in ready, dirty common spaces, hallways and stairwells littered with trash and grime, and what he described as a disappointing lack of support from both the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, which developed the property in partnership with Overland Property Group, and Mission Rock Residential, the company hired by Overland to manage it.

In an interview with the newspaper on Dec. 22 — which included a walkthrough of the Anglers property — Stevenson detailed his concerns about the “deplorable and unsanitary living conditions” at the complex.

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“Nearly every unit has problems,” said Stevenson. “Almost all A/C units had to be replaced in the first year. Bad wiring, bad plumbing, you name it — it’s a disaster at Anglers.”

Stevenson’s interview came less than a week after Laura Armstrong, a resident of YVHA-developed affordable housing community Alpenglow Village, pleaded to the Steamboat Springs City Council during public comment to take action on the “embarrassing” living conditions at that property.

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Mission Rock did not respond to requests for comment sent Monday on resident complaints at Anglers and Alpenglow. 

“The apartments are overcrowded with people not on leases … drug dealers and generally some bad people,” said Stevenson. “The police, fire and medical first responders are there weekly for overdoses and drunken disagreements.”

“Meanwhile the few people that are trying to live decent lives in a clean community are not able to do so,” he added. 

Stevenson, who lived at Alpenglow prior to moving into Anglers, has approximately a decade of experience in property management and development, including with Trammel Crow Residential and Lincoln Property Company. 

Currently, he works and helps manage Edgewerks, a boutique ski and snowboard rental shop near the mountain. He formerly worked as a general manager at restaurant group Rex’s Family, as well serving as meat and seafood manager at City Market.  

Prior to moving into Alpenglow in late 2020, Stevenson had been told by an Alpenglow resident that the property “needed a white person” to move into the building and that they would connect him to the property manager. He then applied for an apartment and was accepted soon after.

“My experience for the most part at Alpenglow was pretty fair, except for clean,” he said. “The halls were always disgusting. There were bicycles everywhere, there was trash in the hallways, dog poop … lots of subletting going on there.”

After over three years of living at Alpenglow, Stevenson heard about Anglers and realized he could rent a more affordable unit there. He later ran into the Anglers property manager at the time (whose full name Stevenson does not recall), who, according to Stevenson, told him that they needed a white male to move there. 

On-site tour paints grim picture

The newspaper’s walkthrough of Anglers Four Hundred painted a grim picture: an unlocked front door with a second entry marked as “inoperable,” a lobby floor tracked with dirt, stairwells and hallways strewn with debris, and a rooftop lounge dotted with dog feces, dozens of cigarette butts and slick patches of ice.

According to Stevenson, the lobby hasn’t been cleaned in “six months, at least.” 

Stevenson claims that there is a single maintenance worker for all three Mission Rock-managed, YVHA-developed properties: Anglers, Alpenglow and The Reserves. 

The first thing Stevenson sees on his resident portal, as confirmed by the newspaper, is a notice explaining how to report an “uninhabitable living condition.” 

The main common space past the Anglers lobby, while clean, has a security camera in the corner, which Stevenson said was installed due to people — residents or otherwise — sleeping on the couch overnight. 

Stevenson repeatedly emphasized that he does not blame on‑site staff for the problems he sees at Anglers.

He spoke highly of Joie Griffin, the current property manager at Anglers, noting that “it’s not local management and maintenance personnel, it’s their bosses at Mission Rock and ownership at YVHA and Overland (Property Group) that don’t care.”

“(Griffin) was thrown to the wolves about a year ago and has been killing herself to do what she can, but is understaffed in all areas and inherited a mess as far as paperwork goes,” Stevenson said. 

Griffin said she could not provide a comment and referred the newspaper to Mission Rock’s corporate leadership, which did not respond to requests for comment. 

“I think the boots on the ground here are good people that are trying to take care of and do what they can, but they are understaffed, they’re shorthanded and they don’t have the tools to do the job,” said Stevenson, “and that all squarely falls on people that live hundreds of miles away from here that manage and oversee these places.”

“They don’t know our climate. They don’t know the conditions that we live in,” he continued, referring to the nuances of Northwest Colorado mountain living. “If you walk around the building, you could almost tell and look at things that should have been caught in the architecture.”

“Our entrance, for instance — when you walk in, there’s no coverage,” he continued. “There’s nice little galleys of wood there, but nothing stops the snow from falling on you when you walk into the entrance. It just falls and snow comes inside the buildings.”

He also noted the structure of the roofs, adding that “if snow unloads off the roof, it’s going to fall on sidewalks and cars out here.”

“None of that was thought of,” said Stevenson.

He also noted a recurring theme of cars illegally parked at Anglers.

“If Joie (Griffin) were to call about parking violations here, they could tow four, five, six a day,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.” 

Stevenson forwarded the newspaper an email sent Dec. 15 from the property management company to Anglers tenants, which asks residents to not park at the nearby parking lot at 270 Anglers Drive — the address for Vectra Bank and the offices for the Yampa Valley Housing Authority. 

He believes that many residents at Anglers are illegally subletting their units, possibly contributing to parking and cleanliness issues at the property. 

“These communities were built for the local working class, advertised as such to our community, and that is not how it worked out due to the ineptness of those in charge,” he said, “but they made their money and moved on.”

“This should not be ignored or swept under the rug any longer,” he continued. “The people of our community need to know the facts and the conditions the blue collar workforce lives in since many have a different opinion of what the reality really is.”

Stevenson, who has lived in Steamboat Springs for over two decades, said that he is confident there are other Anglers residents with similar feelings who are likely afraid of speaking out due to potential retaliation. 

Stevenson himself throughout the interview was shaky and visibly anxious, citing fears of blowback — potentially as severe as being removed from his housing. 

“I have been documenting this for two years and afraid to speak out because of retaliation,” he said. “But at this point, it’s gotten so bad, I can’t take the living conditions anymore.”

“I don’t care if I have to leave Steamboat. It’s been my home for 25 years,” he continued. “If I got to go, I got to go. I just can’t live this way anymore.”

Stevenson worries that, if conditions continue to deteriorate, the building itself could eventually be condemned, leaving residents scrambling for housing in an already squeezed local market.

“Anglers is 50 feet away from YVHA offices with their personnel office windows overlooking the community,” said Stevenson. “They see the mess and turn a blind eye to it.”  

Yampa Valley Housing Authority responds

Stevenson’s complaints, along with Armstrong’s, have raised questions from community members and local officials as to who bears the blame — and to what extent — for the various issues at YVHA-developed, third-party-managed affordable housing projects.

In comments sent to the newspaper Wednesday afternoon, YVHA Executive Director Jason Peasley clarified that the housing authority does not have the power to select the property management companies for Anglers Four Hundred, Alpenglow Village and The Reserves, all of which were developed using federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.​

Peasley explained that Overland Property Group, as managing member of the ownership entities, selects the property manager — in this case Mission Rock — with approval from the tax credit investor, Wells Fargo, which has put more than $25 million collectively into Anglers and Alpengow. 

YVHA serves only as a “special limited partner” without authority over those decisions or day-to-day operations, he wrote.​

“Mission Rock’s … responsibility is to handle day-to-day operations and maintenance of the properties and to ensure tenants are in full compliance with the LIHTC program qualifications,” Peasley stated, adding that Overland acts as the asset manager and direct supervisor of Mission Rock.​

Peasley said YVHA stays involved through monthly meetings with Overland and Mission Rock to discuss management approaches, semiannual property walks to flag issues and by forwarding tenant complaints to those partners.

The housing authority has provided input on parking and maintenance concerns at Anglers and Alpenglow via those channels but cannot dictate solutions, he added.​

He invited the newspaper to meet in mid-January with Overland Property Group Managing Partner Matt Gillam, Mission Rock representatives and the city to discuss collaborative improvements.​

“We care deeply about our community members and have worked hard to positively influence the living conditions and management approaches at these properties,” said Peasley. “YVHA is committed to work collaboratively with the City, (Overland Property Group) and Mission Rock to make meaningful changes that will benefit our community members who live at these properties.”