The people who climbed the stairs at the Ouray Community Center and filled the seats inside the City Council hearing room carried the heavy weight of worry and desperation with them.
The mother of two Ouray School students who works as a mental health therapist. The 72-year-old woman who juggles four or five odd jobs to be able to afford her mortgage and lot rent. The 75-year-old woman who sold or gave away nearly everything she owned to buy a trailer.
It was early December and they and the other residents of Swiss Village Mobile Home Park were staring down a challenge burgeoning by the day: coming up with enough money to buy the land underneath their homes. There was little indication they could narrow the $500,000 gap between the asking price and appraised value of the land. And even if they did, it seemed doubtful they would be unable to scrape together sufficient funding to keep lot rents from doubling or tripling — a prospect that would force many of them to move.
Their formidable request of the council that night: a $1.2 million subsidy. Councilors made clear they wanted to help, but seven figures was almost certainly out of the question.
But with the new year, there’s new hope for retaining what many have called Ouray’s original affordable housing.
Two philanthropic couples, Jay and Jackie Lauderdale and Cat and Barthold Lichtenbelt, have stepped forward and want to donate $900,000 to help Swiss Village residents buy and preserve the park.
“At the end of the day, it’s about trying to maintain this housing,” Jay Lauderdale told councilors during their Monday night meeting.
The former Ouray School teacher and energy industry executive noted his kids went to school with classmates who lived in the mobile home park, and that he taught students whose families live in Swiss Village to this day.
“These people are part of our community, and so what we need to do is protect that, in my opinion,” he said.
Barthold Lichtenbelt said he and his wife believe affordable housing and access to good health care are critical for a community to thrive and for people to feel secure.
“If you don’t have attainable or affordable housing that people that live and work here can afford, you don’t have a community, plain and simple,” he said in an interview Tuesday night. “We need to figure out something.”
The contributions from the Lauderdales and Lichtenbelts provide a major boost to hopes that Swiss Village homeowners will be able to broker a deal with the current owners of the park, Ross and Arlene Crawford, that will also keep lot rents affordable.
“Without contributions from these donors, this would be impossible. I guess I shouldn’t say impossible. It would be possible at very unaffordable rents,” said Ben Moore, a financial analyst with Thistle, a Boulder nonprofit organization that has been working with Swiss Village for months to help them transition to a resident- owned community.
Hope amidst instability
It has been a bumpy ride for Swiss Village residents since they learned in June that the Crawfords intended to sell the park at 1500 Oak St. They formed a cooperative, created a board of directors and joined Thistle in the hopes of drumming up sufficient funding and converting Swiss Village from a privately owned mobile home park to a resident-owned community. Owning the land underneath their trailers would allow them to set their own rents and plow any revenue right back into the community. Nonprofit lender Impact Development Fund offered a loan at a 3.5% interest rate.
But the cooperative hit an impasse in the fall. It offered $2.18 million for the 3 acres that contain the park’s 21 mobile homes. The Crawfords countered at $2.7 million. The two sides have yet to reach a compromise, and the window is now open for someone else to make the Crawfords an offer. If another buyer makes a successful offer, that elevates the chances the new owner will hike lot rents beyond the means of the current residents or scrape the park altogether and redevelop it.
The donations from the Lauderdales and Lichtenbelts are meant to keep that from happening, and to buy more time for Swiss Village residents and the Crawfords to negotiate a deal.
Jay Lauderdale credited the Crawfords for providing Ouray with affordable housing for 35 years in the form of Swiss Village, and for their patience while residents try to orchestrate a purchase.
“They should be thanked for that. We want to get them their money, let them retire,” he said.
The cooperative plans to apply for a grant from the Department of Local Affairs that could be worth as much as $880,000. Jay Lauderdale said if that happens, the donors would like to take that money and invest it in other affordable housing projects in Ouray County.
Could local governments chip in?
With private donations secured and a plan to seek funding from the state in the works, Thistle and the Swiss Village cooperative are turning to local governments for additional help to keep lot rents as low as possible.
They sent a letter last month to Ouray County commissioners seeking $300,000. And during Monday night’s council meeting they presented two different scenarios in which funding from the city would help hold rents in check.
Rent for Swiss Village residents increased in January by $75 a month to $480, meaning they’re now paying roughly $700 a month in rent and city utilities.
Moore told councilors Thistle and the cooperative think they could lock in monthly rents between $700 and $750 now, given the private donations and assuming they can reach a purchase agreement. If the city contributed $200,000, monthly rents could drop to $650 to $700. A $325,000 contribution would push monthly rents to between $600 and $650.
Blair Kanis, a Ouray resident and attorney with the Colorado Poverty Law Project who is working with the cooperative, said the $600 threshold is important. She said a survey of Swiss Village residents found most indicated they could afford to pay $800 a month in rent and city utilities.
The goal is to keep these residents in their homes.
“We’re trying to prevent against a developer or investment group coming in, seeing they can buy the park for $2.8 (million), increasing rents to $2,000 a month and then flipping the park,” Moore said.
Councilors didn’t make any formal decisions Monday but seemed amenable to contributing some amount of money. They directed staff to determine how much money is currently in the city’s affordable housing fund, which is subsidized by a 15% excise tax on short-term rentals approved by voters in 2021. Revenue from that tax is evenly split between a fund for affordable housing and a fund for water and wastewater capital projects.
As of October, the city had a little more than $168,000 in the fund for affordable housing.
City Attorney Carol Viner said she will prepare a letter of intent detailing a potential contribution from the city and present it to the council at its Feb. 3 meeting.
“This can happen,” Councilor Tamara Gulde said. “We’re really excited for you. We want to help.”
Ouray County Commissioner Jake Niece said commissioners will meet Feb. 26 to consider a funding request and suggested city councilors could join them for a joint work session.
