As a lack of accessible child care and affordable housing weighs heavily on young Routt County families, First Impressions of Routt County is exploring new ways to address both issues simultaneously.

In Ouray County, Ouray-based nonprofit Rural Homes Colorado partnered with early childhood council Bright Futures to tackle both issues head-on, providing child care for those living in an established affordable housing complex and inviting young parents to work and raise children with necessary support.

First Impressions of Routt County — a local organization that seeks to provide resources for Routt County young children, families and educators to promote healthy development and school readiness — is now taking inspiration from Ouray’s project and hoping to see a similar model come to the Yampa Valley.

“We know housing is a big issue in our community,” First Impressions Executive Director Meg Franges said. “But continuing to build housing without child care in parallel is only going to exacerbate the problem.”

Rural Homes Colorado’s Early Childhood Initiative invited two child care providers, Tiny Colorado Treasures Childcare and Ouray Family Childcare, to provide accessible child care for young Ouray families from the newly built Waterview Development.

The Waterview Development is an affordable home development that was finished last summer, allowing young families to purchase homes.

The owner of Tiny Colorado Treasures Childcare, Estrella Piatt, said the project came about due to similar issues facing Routt County, including high cost of living and limited child care providers.

“Before (the Rural Homes Colorado project), it was just a joke to be able to say, ‘I’m going to live in Ouray.’ It’s just so expensive. It’s not affordable …,” said Piatt. “Before this, there was no child care around and parents were having to drive to Montrose for child care.”

Similar to some Routt County families, Ouray County families were commuting about 45 minutes to Montrose to drop off and pick up their children at daycare, battling gas costs, inclement weather and high provider prices.

Once the affordable housing Waterview Development was underway, Bright Futures — Ouray’s equivalent to Routt County’s First Impressions — provided small business development classes tailored for early childhood care providers. Piatt took the classes and was later chosen to be one of two child care providers who would live and work in one of the Waterview Development homes.

Once the affordable housing Waterview Development opened and child care providers moved in earlier this year, the Ouray-based early childhood council Bright Futures helped Piatt and Ouray Family Childcare obtain state licensing.

Piatt said Bright Futures also provided a $26,000 grant to Tiny Colorado Treasures Childcare, helping her purchase license-compliant furniture and materials to help jumpstart the daycare.

Now, Piatt lives in and operates her daycare in one of the Waterview Development homes at a discounted rate, incentivizing her to keep her business local to Ouray.

Tiny Colorado Treasures Childcare and Ouray Family Childcare, both located in the Waterview Development, increased Ouray’s child care capacity by 24 spots.

“I think this project keeps families here,” said Piatt. “It keeps our young community alive and it gives us more people who are going to be here for a lot longer and raise their families who will eventually go to our school district.”

While addressing the lack of child care in Routt County, as well as the steep prices it comes with, First Impressions is now looking toward Ouray’s Waterview Development and Rural Homes Early Childhood Initiative to kickstart solutions.

A study conducted by First Impressions shows there are about 1,222 children age 6 and younger in Routt County in 2025, with only 16 licensed providers actively providing care in the county.

The report shows that if 75% of the 1,222 young children in the county need care, that means over 900 children require child care services. With 647 slots available when licensed child care facilities are fully staffed, nearly 270 children are left without access to licensed, high-quality care.

The report also found that 57% of Routt County providers do not offer summer child care, leaving many families without accessible options in the summer months.

Of the child care centers in Routt County, most providers allocate the majority of their capacity for mixed-age preschoolers, leaving little room for infants and toddlers.

Among Steamboat’s licensed 434 slots for young children, only 6% are dedicated to infants and 16% are dedicated to toddlers. Ten percent of Hayden’s 89 slots allow for infants, and 33% allow for toddlers, according to the report.

Notably, North Routt only has 5% of its 44 slots dedicated to toddlers, and none for infants. South Routt does not have any dedicated infant or toddler slots.

“The most impressive thing about that project is how they looked at this very holistically,” said Franges. “They looked at this from a licensing perspective and built those homes to be licensed, so that expense is already covered. They looked at making sure the individuals who would operate this have the tools they need through small business development classes. They also looked at making sure the child care space could be closed at the end of the day so the (providers) can have a work-life balance.”

Franges said that the first step toward implementing something similar to the Rural Homes Colorado Early Childhood Initiative is to make sure that accessible child care is part of the discussion around affordable housing.

“Access to child care and having quality housing go hand in hand,” said Franges. “We know that, and we know that it’s going to support mental health in our community, too. So it’s just such a well-rounded approach that really brought together so many community partners to make a big impact.”

To view First Impressions’ child care report, visit Tinyurl.com/48y9sfrk.