Yampa Valley Housing Authority Executive Director Peasley presented the organization’s annual report to the Steamboat Springs City Council last week, highlighting how YVHA is spending public money, its strategic plan going forward and what the public can expect from its current slate of housing projects. 

The presentation highlighted new homeownership opportunities at The Cottonwoods at Mid Valley, planned reinvestment in older properties and a growing focus on down-payment assistance to move local renters into ownership.

Peasley told council at its Feb. 17 meeting that YVHA’s work falls into four main areas: developing and preserving housing, managing and selling properties, providing down-payment assistance and helping residents navigate a tightening housing market. 

The “most tangible piece” remains the authority’s real estate portfolio, which now includes Hillside Village Apartments, Fox Creek, Fish Creek Mobile Home Park and Whitehaven Mobile Home Park, along with more recently built projects like The Reserves, Alpenglow Village, Anglers Four Hundred and Sunlight Crossing.

“Every single one of those units that we delivered has a household living in them, and that’s the stuff that really brings us a ton of joy,” said Peasley. 

Peasley said YVHA is planning significant capital projects at several older properties, including a full rehabilitation of Hillside Village, electrical upgrades and trailer replacements at Fish Creek, and a complete replacement of water and sewer infrastructure at Whitehaven. 

Whitehaven, which sits inside city limits but has relied on a well system for decades, would be connected to city water for the first time through a mix of state and federal grants (including a $750,000 grant to YVHA from DOLA), private donations and a pending request for short-term rental tax revenue from the city.

Peasley also spoke briefly about the status of living conditions at The Reserves, Alpenglow and Anglers, which drew scrutiny from city leaders and the public in January for their unsanitary and “unacceptable” nature. 

“My team members were out doing walks … and seeing a ton of progress at those properties as far as the physical conditions, as far as the staffing levels, so all of that is in a state of significant improvement,” said Peasley. 

On the development side, Peasley described an internal goal of consistently keeping roughly 100 housing units in each stage of YVHA’s pipeline: concept, pre-development, construction and delivery.

The Cottonwoods, the first deed-restricted for-sale affordable housing project in Steamboat Springs in 20 years — supported by a $10 million city contribution — is the closest to completion. 

Lotteries for the first phase opened this month, with certificates of occupancy expected in March and move-ins anticipated throughout the next month.

“We’ve had nearly 500 households express interest in living there,” said Peasley. “We’re nearing the 100-mark of people qualified to live in the units that can enter the lotteries, and we have an entire team, along with our partners at The Agency, that are working on running the lotteries and taking those folks through a seamless process of going under contract and moving into their units within the next several weeks.”

Open houses for qualified buyers began last week, and YVHA also plans to offer tours to City Council members so they can see what the city’s investment has produced.​

“When we deliver The Cottonwoods here in the next several weeks, YVHA will have delivered 401 housing units to this community (over 20 years),” said Peasley, who emphasized that the total reflects participation by the city and other partners as well as the authority itself.

“I just want that to be a reminder to everyone that if we work collaboratively, these are the types of things we can achieve,” he added. 

Looking ahead, Peasley said a second phase of The Cottonwoods is in an “advanced” pre-development stage and could break ground later this year, while a separate project on the U.S. Forest Service Hilltop site is moving toward design, engineering and entitlements. 

“We’re out prospecting for opportunities so we can continue to fill that pipeline,” said Peasley. “The work that’s being delivered today was in those early stages several years ago.”

He noted that the housing authority continues to be engaged in the Brown Ranch Community Solutions process in partnership with local elected officials and consultant teams but did not elaborate further on YVHA planning around Brown Ranch.

Peasley devoted part of his presentation to YVHA’s down-payment assistance program, initially seeded with city support approximately a decade ago, which he said has helped nearly 100 families purchase homes on the free market. 

“We’re actually investing about $700,000 this year in down-payment assistance to help folks get into homeownership,” said Peasley, who referred to the program as a “really important piece” that generally goes “unnoticed.” 

Councilor Michael Buccino, noting the city’s past $500,000 contribution to acquiring the Anglers property, described the impact of these units on local workers, including one of his own employees who now lives at Anglers rather than commuting from Hayden to Steamboat. 

Buccino asked whether YVHA had explored nontraditional financing options for Cottonwoods buyers, such as a fund housed at the community foundation and backed by private donors to help cover mortgage gaps.

“We haven’t spent a ton of time exploring that particular vein,” said Peasley. “What we’ve done is essentially pair a pot of down-payment assistance money with conventional mortgages.”

He told council every deed-restricted home sale in the community so far has used a conventional mortgage and that the most effective tool to date has been combining that with loans or grants that reduce the upfront cash required from buyers. 

“It’s going to be interesting to hear the stories of how people were able to get financing to get into these properties,” said Buccino. 

Later in the presentation, Councilor Amy Dickson drew attention to YVHA’s clean 2024 audit, which she characterized as a meaningful benchmark for any organization handling public funds, to which Peasley credited the organization’s finance team. 

“This is a big deal,” said Dickson. “There were no material weaknesses identified, no significant deficiencies identified — that’s what we all strive for.”

Peasley also referenced the authority’s broader strategic plan, pointing to last summer’s housing market and demand study as a key tool for understanding what types of housing are most needed. 

“We’re also focused on forecasting and modeling, not only for our internal organization but also for the developments that we’re working on,” he explained. 

On the policy side, Peasley said YVHA has become a regular point of contact for state lawmakers working on housing legislation, in part through the advocacy work of Board Member Catherine Carson. 

“When there are housing bills, we are getting directly contacted by folks in the legislature to find out what we think about those housing bills,” said Peasley. “We’re oftentimes on the cutting edge of what’s happening with housing, so being able to feed that information back to the policymakers is really important from our standpoint.”

In closing, Peasley reiterated YVHA’s intent to keep reinvesting in existing properties, with Whitehaven’s infrastructure replacement described as the largest single project in the near term. 

Peasley framed the 401 units that will exist after The Cottonwoods is delivered as both a milestone and a reminder that the authority’s goal is to get individual households into stable homes.