South Routt County’s effort to address its affordable housing shortage has taken a formal step forward, with the regional advisory board now established as an official housing authority and applications being taken for its first board of directors.

The South Routt Housing Authority was officially established Feb. 18 via an intergovernmental agreement between Routt County, the town of Oak Creek and the town of Yampa, Routt County Commissioner and Advisory Board Member Angelica Salinas told the newspaper on Monday.

The application process for the authority’s board opened Monday and will close Friday, April 24, marking the next major milestone in turning a years-long planning process into an operational housing entity.

“We’ve really moved from planning into action,” said South Routt Housing Innovation Manager Drew Blanchard in a statement to the newspaper. “With the Housing Authority now formally in place, South Routt has a way to take on housing challenges more collaboratively and with a long-term lens.”

The authority grew out of a regional advisory board formed last year — composed of two representatives each from Routt County, Oak Creek and Yampa — as South Routt leaders looked for a coordinated response to housing pressures, with the goal of implementing solutions outlined in a 2024 housing needs assessment.

In July, local officials were still in the early stages of discussing how a housing authority might help South Routt respond to rising costs, preserve existing housing and support future development.

Now the new authority is moving into its first real organizational phase, having officially established its boundaries as being the Oak Creek Fire Protection District and the Yampa Fire Protection District.

Under the intergovernmental agreement, the board will include between seven and nine total members, including one elected official from each of the three participating jurisdictions as ex-officio members. 

Salinas is slated to be appointed as Routt County’s ex-officio representative at the commissioners’ April 7 regular meeting. 

Oak Creek Town Trustee Erika Pastor has been appointed as the Oak Creek elected representative, said Town Manager Louis Fineberg. Yampa is waiting to appoint its representative following the results of its April 7 municipal election. 

According to the board application, the South Routt Housing Authority is seeking four to six members for three-year terms who reflect “a diverse balance of professional expertise and lived experience within the community.” 

Helpful experience may include finance, asset or property management, housing development, real estate or land-use planning, philanthropy and/or public policy.

The next step is for an appointments committee to review board applications, after which the authority will select its board members, begin forming bylaws and begin setting a regular meeting schedule.

Blanchard said the authority’s immediate focus is making sure the board reflects community needs and priorities.

“A lot of the early work was about laying the groundwork, and now that structure is in place,” he said. “This gives South Routt a real opportunity to work together on housing in a more coordinated way. The next step is getting the right people at the table and moving forward thoughtfully.”

One of the biggest reasons local leaders accelerated the effort, said Salinas, was the planned sale of the Willow Bend and Willow Creek mobile home parks in Oak Creek. 

Those parks, like others in the valley — Milner Mobile Home Park, Whitehaven Mobile Home Park and Pinyon Pines Estates — were listed for sale at a high price, giving residents a limited window to organize and try to buy them.

The advisory board then began working with residents to try to form a co-op, similar to co-ops formed at the Milner Mobile Home Park and Whitehaven.  

That effort, said Salinas, underscored the need for a more permanent structure to address housing in South Routt.

“I think that was really kind of a push that the advisory board needed to say, ‘We have to step on the gas to form the authority,'” Salinas said. “We want to do it the right way and thoughtfully, but there are real needs in this part of the county that aren’t being addressed.”

For now, the authority is not focused on a large development project, Salinas said. Instead, its initial work will center on preserving existing affordable housing, supporting residents and determining what tools the new entity can bring to the region.

“It’s not necessarily that we formed a housing authority and now we’re going to start building,” she explained. “It’s going to be, how do we protect the affordable housing that already exists in these communities?”

“How do we improve upon those affordable housing places and the sale of those two mobile home parks in Oak Creek?” she continued. “Which — if they sell — how much will the lot prices increase?”

Blanchard said that broader mission is at the core of the new authority’s purpose, which “creates a more nimble and focused entity than any one town can operate on its own.”

“At its core, the Housing Authority is a tool,” he said. “It allows the communities of Oak Creek, Yampa, and Routt County to work together in a coordinated way to address housing — whether that’s supporting new development, preserving existing housing, or helping bring resources into the valley.”

With the board application process now open, South Routt’s housing leaders are taking the first steps toward building the organization that will guide that work.

To apply, visit tinyurl.com/kwzvbt8c.