Liz Sharp walked around her apartment, carrying her rabbit, Sophia, as she pointed things out.
She’s making new curtains inspired by Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night.’ Her kitchen sink faces a wall, but she’s hung a painting that looks like a window above it. Sophia’s favorite hiding spot is underneath Sharp’s Pilates machine, though most of the apartment is bunny-proofed so she can roam freely.
She’s still getting settled in the space, deciding exactly where and how to store her belongings, but Sharp is happy and grateful to have a place of her own in Ridgway.
She and Sophia are among the first residents of Space to Create, Ouray County’s first affordable housing project, which opened last month after years of planning, financing and building.
The building has been in the works since 2016, when the town first applied to Colorado Creative Industries and was chosen for a Space to Create project. After breaking ground in 2021, applications for residents opened this spring and the first tenants got their keys to the apartments in October.
The $10 million project isn’t complete yet, as some exterior work is still unfinished, due in part to supply chain issues. But residents are now moved in on all three floors.
All 30 rental units are income-restricted, and residents must earn below 80% of the area median income; rent for each unit is calculated based on the tenants’ income.
There were strict income limits and requests for extensive documentation and paperwork, but with government funding involved in the project, that was a requirement, and one without any flexibility for Artspace, the nonprofit developer that owns the building, or the town, which owns the land but was not involved in resident selection. Making just a dollar over a limit resulted in ineligibility or higher rent for some applicants; ultimately, some applicants dropped out of the process.
But for the residents who made it through the application and the verification process and signed leases, the hassle was worth it for the outcome, they said: housing stability, affordability and places to call home in Ridgway. *** Sharp, 68, remembers answering a survey when the town was first starting the process with Artspace. She was living in the Bank Building on Clinton Street at the time, which has since sold and is being redeveloped. Sharp, a ceramicist and retired ski instructor and river guide, loved living in the San Juans and forged connections in Ridgway and Ouray.
“I filled it out and waited, and waited, and waited,” she said. When she found another housing opportunity in Arizona, she reluctantly left town, but kept hoping Space to Create would allow her to return.
She longed for a stable place to call home – as change presents an exceptional challenge for her. “I need to keep things simple, as I age with a brain injury,” she said.
Sharp stuck to what she called her “P Plan,” she said: prayer, pottery, patience, persistence.
She’s been overwhelmed with gratitude since she returned, and she’s been welcomed back with open arms, she said.
The building’s management helped unload her truck, provided her a storage unit and went “beyond” to help her get settled, Sharp said.
She’s still hoping to find a place where she can use her kiln, she said. But she’s got room in her new apartment for herself and Sophia, who likes snacking on carrot tops and mandarin oranges in her enclosure in the living room.
A painting of St. Francis hangs above her kitchen, and artwork adorns many of her walls. Her sewing machine sits on her kitchen table in a sunny spot, and she set up an altar for the Day of the Dead.
“I’m so grateful,” she said. “I’m so glad I have my space.”
“To come back, to be treated with such kindness,” she said, then trailed off, eyes watering. “I can’t express it in words.” *** Tony Criscuolo pulled a bag of tea down from a cupboard above his stove, sifting through it to find elderberry tea.
He poured boiling water into a bright yellow mug, then used a knife to scoop out the last of the honey from the bottom of a bottle. He stood in his kitchen in his new apartment, where furniture is scant in favor of room to sit on the floor or practice yoga. Books sit along one wall, CDs against another, and large rugs take up most of the floor.
Criscuolo, 78, is impressed by the details in his new apartment.
After moving in October, it took him some time to get used to having a full kitchen with an oven and stove, he said; in his last rental, he had only a hot plate and toaster oven.
And his new, sunny corner apartment in Space to Create offers not just a place to call home, but the reassurance that he’ll be able to stay without fear of being displaced.
He came to Ridgway when a friend invited him to visit four years ago, planning to stay just for the summer, then decided to stay. In addition to teaching yoga, he coaches basketball and golf and is a substitute teacher. “I like the people and the community,” he said.
But the high cost of living made him question how much longer he could stay here.
He was paying $1,300 per month in rent to live in Solar Ranch, he said, and now, he’s saving almost $600 per month.
“It’s making it possible for me to stay here,” he said.
He’s also looking forward to the community aspect of Space to Create. Criscuolo wants to organize meetings with other residents, and to coordinate activities such as yoga classes. *** Bee Boykin was in middle school when the town was first selected for a Space to Create project.
Now, at 19, she’s one of its first residents, and she’s settling into her third floor apartment.
Before moving to Ridgway, Boykin, who graduated from Ouray School in May, lived in a loft above Mojo’s Coffee in Ouray, where she worked, then in a small cabin in Valley Heights Mobile Home Park. Now, the space of her new one-bedroom apartment “is almost too much room for myself.”
She shares the space with her cat, Kirby, who she found outside her cabin. He quickly adapted to life in the apartment, where he has a cat castle of his own.
In addition to the stability, she’s excited about the creative community. One of the first things she did after moving in was set up a corner of the room to make music, with a keyboard, microphone and computer equipment for recording. A picture of Kurt Cobain hangs on one wall, and Squishmallow stuffed animals sit on many of the surfaces.
Like her neighbors, she was drawn to Space to Create because of the affordability, the location in downtown Ridgway and the opportunity to have a space of her own.
The application process was “torturous,” made harder because of her age and lack of credit or rent history. “I didn’t even have a credit score,” she said.
But it was more than worth it. “Space to Create is like a dream come true for me,” Boykin said. Having a space of her own, she said, “is one of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced.”
***
“If this didn’t happen, I would be leaving the area,” Mony Garriga said.
She was paying $2,000 per month in rent to live in Ridgway, and supplementing her income as a massage therapist with managing and cleaning a vacation rental.
Because she’s self-employed – Garriga is a massage therapist and also does Watsu aquatic bodywork at Orvis Hot Springs – providing financial documentation to qualify for Space to Create was a long, arduous process.
But with jobs that fluctuate seasonally, she’s grateful to have a stable, affordable apartment with a long-term lease.
The first two floors of the building were completed first, and residents began moving in, but Garriga and others on the third floor waited eagerly for their own move-in day.
She started moving into the new space earlier in November, but even before she signed the lease and got the keys, she’d started envisioning and designing her new home.
Her kitchen lines one of the walls, leaving plenty of open space, which she plans to use to both live and work.
Initially, residents were told they’d need to provide their own washing machines and dryers, but a donor ultimately provided them for all units. Garriga used money she’d set aside for that to buy furniture.
She wants to make the apartment feel like a healing environment. “I want to make it a safe, beautiful space,” she said.
***
“Every single day, I think, ‘I can’t believe I get to live here,’” said Kirsten Hamilton.
She’s still setting up her new apartment: Her furniture is assembled, her bookshelves are full and her plants are adjusting to their new environment, but her artwork is still stacked on the floor, waiting to be arranged on her walls.
“That’s the thing that will make it feel like home,” she said.
She applied to live in Space to Create for the stability it promised, which was welcome after several challenging years.
“It was all about housing security,” Hamilton said.
She came to Ridgway initially as a traveling physical therapist. When that contract ended, she left for another position in Oregon, but was laid off during the pandemic. With her work shuttered, she came back to Ridgway, and spent a few months living in a tent.
For the last two years, she was living in an apartment above Taco del Gnar in Ridgway, but worried about the stability with an out-of-state landlord. “I never felt like I could trust that he wouldn’t sell it,” she said. That finally happened this summer, when the 380-square-foot unit sold for $260,000.
If she hadn’t been accepted into Space to Create, she likely wouldn’t have been able to stay in Ridgway, she said. And she knows that’s the same way many of her neighbors feel, too.
She’s heard the complaints about the building’s appearance, but thinks the benefits of housing security far outweigh any aesthetic concerns. “You’ve just given 40 people, or however many, a place to live,” she said.
“I just feel so grateful,” she said. “I’m just extremely grateful that this even came to Ridgway.”
Liz Teitz is a journalist with Report for America, a national service program which places reporters in underserved areas. You can support her work with a tax-deductible donation. Email erin@ouraynews.com for more information.
