The South Routt Housing Advisory Board is working toward potentially forming a co-op for residents of Willow Bend and Willow Hill mobile home parks in Oak Creek, aiming to give them collective control over the land where their homes sit and protect them from steep rent increases.

The South Routt Housing Advisory Board was created earlier this summer as a regional collaboration among Oak Creek, Yampa and Routt County to oversee initiatives to tackle the area’s housing crisis. 

At the Oak Creek Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, which functioned as a joint meeting with Routt County commissioners, Drew Blanchard, South Routt County’s housing innovation manager, provided an update on his first two months on the job, highlighting his focus on supporting residents navigating the sale of the two parks. 

The current owners, OW Steamboat LLC, notified residents in early September that an interested party was attempting to purchase the Willow Hill neighborhood at 201 Wild Hogg Drive and the Willow Bend neighborhood at 400 Willow Bend in Oak Creek.

Sale price for the land was $8.4 million, according to the county assessor’s website.

“Rent for the lots in those two parks has gone up over and over again … and they’re already ridiculous,” said Blanchard. “My goal … is spending a lot of time looking into how the two parks and how the residents there can potentially create a co-op and take possession of the parks so that they can control the lot rents and keep all of those really important affordable homes here in Oak Creek.”

The tight 120-day timeline for making an offer, however, has made organizing and securing financing urgent challenges for the residents.

Routt County Commissioner Angelica Salinas, an advisory board member, described how the board is working with local stakeholders to get the ball rolling on forming the co-op, such as seeing if forming an official housing authority — not just an advisory board — might open up funding opportunities.

“We have been in contact with the Yampa Valley Community Foundation already, reaching out with the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, connecting with (Hayden Town Manager) Mathew Mendisco and his team to see how they’re navigating the Pinyon Pines situation,” said Salinas, “so it’s definitely top priority.” 

She noted that this is “not the first time” such a situation has arisen in the area, citing similar circumstances where co-ops were formed at Milner Mobile Home Park, Whitehaven Mobile Home Park and most recently, Pinyon Pines Estates in Hayden. 

In each case, residents faced the imminent sale of their parks and the uncertainty of likely rent hikes, organizing cooperatives to negotiate ownership collectively. 

Town Trustee Bernie Gagne called the parks’ fate “the number one most urgent item for the town of Oak Creek as it relates to housing,” noting that some lots in the parks contain half-sized trailers or duplex conversions that carry rents nearing $1,645 per month. 

Blanchard plans to deepen community engagement with regular office hours and listening sessions in Oak Creek and Yampa to gather input and build a more robust housing database that will further help shape local solutions.

“I think it’s really important that we’re able to keep housing that we have here as a priority before even thinking about building anything else,” said Salinas. “It’s unfortunate that it’s happening, but I just want everyone to be aware that we’re doing everything we can to help those residents, to meet with them and see what we can do.”