Editor’s note: This is the fourth profile in an occasional series highlighting those in Ouray County who are struggling to find housing, living in unusual situations or trying to solve the housing problem. If you have ideas or tips for future articles, please contact Liz Teitz at liz@ouraynews.com.
Diane Todd stood on her porch, looking past the high school soccer team practicing in the Ridgway Athletic Park.
Across the field, her daughter, Daisy, raced up and down the concrete of the skatepark, dipping inside the bowl and disappearing briefly.
Todd called her daughter’s name, then waited a moment for the 5-year-old to pause and raise a thumbs-up in acknowledgement, before resuming her game.
In the week since they moved into a new home in Ridgway, the skatepark has already become a favorite spot for Daisy. She calls the park her backyard, and she wants to learn to skate. She thought their last house was haunted, so she’s happy to be somewhere new.
It’s their fourth home in the last three years, and one Todd hopes will be theirs for a while.
“There’s sunshine galore, an incredible view, and it’s pretty ideal for a child there,” she said.
Finding any permanent place, let alone an ideal one, has been a challenge. Since she separated from her husband three years ago, finding a place to stay with a young child hasn’t been easy, despite working two jobs.
But she’s grateful for all their landing spots, and for a job that’s made it possible: her last three homes have been leased by Ouray Brewery owner Erin Eddy, who has rented houses and rooms around the county in an effort to secure housing for his staff.
She started working there about 10 years ago, long before she knew she’d need to rely on the job for housing. She worked at Ouray School for much of the last decade, and now works in behavioral therapy in Montrose, but has always worked at the brewery on weekends and through the summer.
Eddy has been among the most vocal business owners about the challenges of hiring and retaining employees when they can’t find a place to live, putting up a sign outside his brewery and blaming the housing shortage on the proliferation of short-term rentals. At one point last summer, Eddy was renting 20 rooms in seven different buildings, he said. When homes go up for sale, as real estate prices continue to climb, he shuffles employees around and searches for more places.
But Todd doesn’t dwell on the frustration of packing and unpacking, getting settled in and then doing it all over again. “I know I’m one of the lucky ones who has someone looking out for them,” she said. “I’m extremely grateful to have help navigating this.”
She and Daisy were renting a house on Log Hill from a friend three years ago, which she thought would be a long-term place to stay. But less than a year after they moved in, the owners decided to sell.
She moved into a house Eddy rented in Ouray, sharing it with other employees. It was crowded, and not a great fit for a young child, she said, but it was a place to call home. Then, she moved into a “big, beautiful Victorian,” living first with another mother-and-child pair and then with other co-workers. In the summer, international students Eddy hired to work at the restaurant also joined them.
Now, the pair is sharing the Ridgway unit, part of a duplex in the Solar Ranch subdivision, with a manager at the brewery, who Todd said was an outlier for being willing to live with Daisy.
There’s plenty to be happy about in their new place: the location, the sunlight, the proximity to Daisy’s father, who lives nearby. It’s also a shorter commute to her other job in Montrose, where she drives four days a week.
She makes the trip north each day after putting Daisy on the school bus, seeing three clients at Over the Rainbow Behavioral Consulting, before returning in time to meet the afternoon bus home. She’s passionate about the job, and said working with children is “world-changing.” But she has no intention of leaving her position at the brewery, where she still works on weekends and full-time in the summer.
The second job gives her balance, she said, as well as the housing help.
Without the brewery, she isn’t sure how she would find a place on her own. She’s watched houses sell for half a million dollars, and knows how difficult the rental market is to navigate, especially with a kindergartner, who she said isn’t a “marketable” roommate to most.
“How are we going to afford this area?” she said. But moving elsewhere and leaving their family and friends here isn’t an option for herself or Daisy. Living in Montrose might be less expensive, but it’s not what’s best for her daughter.
“Right now, it’s all about Daisy,” she said, who is already adapting quickly to yet another change.
They saw the new house in Ridgway for the first time when they arrived to move in, and Daisy wasted no time exploring the park as soon as they arrived.
“Her face lit up because of the sunshine, and she saw the kids playing,” she said. A ditch runs just past the porch, with a small wooden bridge across it. After checking beneath it for trolls, Daisy scampered across and took off into the park, making friends before her mother had even started unloading the car.
Todd is hopeful this might be a place to call home for a long time. “If we didn’t have to move again,” she said, trailing off to consider it. “I feel like I haven’t even been able to think about it.”
She hasn’t fully settled in yet. There are still boxes to unpack and a new roommate to get to know. The rock garden she and Daisy have collected together is still in buckets, waiting to be unloaded.
When she learned they had to move again, she dug the rocks out from under the snow, making sure she didn’t leave it behind.
Her Fiestaware plates are in the cupboard, family photos are on the wall of the bedroom she and Daisy share, and in the living room, a disco ball catches and reflects the light.
It was a gift from a friend several years ago, and it’s one of the first things Todd arranges each time they move. Even though there’s still more to unpack, when the light is sparkling around the room and pictures of her family adorn the walls, “I feel like I’m home already,” she said.
Liz Teitz is a reporter with Report for America, a nonprofit program which places journalists in underserved areas. To support her work with a tax-deductible donation, email erin@ouraynews.com.
