Eva Henson knows what it’s like to navigate the challenges of affordable housing as a homeowner, beyond her experience working in housing.

Ouray County’s new contracted housing services director spent more than a decade living in Summit County, where she owned a deed-restricted home and saw housing pressures intensify in Colorado’s rural, tourism-driven communities.

At one point, she and her husband were renting a house near Keystone when he learned that two friends were living in their cars near Arapahoe Basin. The couple invited those friends to share their living room floor over the winter.

“I think even then, understanding (affordable housing) and trying to navigate it was complicated,” Henson said.

“I bring those tools forward … it’s similar challenges, similar issues that we’re facing today, and having that lived experience just gives me passion and purpose,” she said.

“I think it helps me with an empathetic side to understanding what it’s like to make sure that you have a home, have a roof over your head, that stability. And if you don’t have that, what does that feel like?”

Henson now lives in Durango with her family, where she will continue to live and work remotely while serving all three of the county’s local governments in her role.

The new housing services director operates under the Home Trust of Ouray County.

Local governments selected the nonprofit organization to be the county’s housing services provider this year, after it was the only applicant for the position in a bid process. The position is funded through a Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant and contributions from the city of Ouray, town of Ridgway and Ouray County.

The position is one Henson comes to after experience in both private and public housing. She served as a real estate agent for a decade before transitioning into the public sector.

She began her public career in Summit County, where she served as an assistant to the county manager and county attorney, gaining experience in government. At that job, she helped transform the county’s down payment assistance program for employees.

She then stepped into more housing-focused jobs, serving as the town of Frisco’s housing manager before becoming the city of Durango’s housing innovation manager.

In those roles, she helped develop approximately 300 housing units, including a first-of-its-kind workforce rental housing program in Frisco in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Transportation. In Durango, she helped create a 120-unit hotel-to-housing transformation project.

“Having that lived experience in rural and mountain environments really helped me understand both the urgency that’s really not gone away, and also the nuance of the housing challenges,” Henson said.

Her new job serving Ouray County communities focuses on collecting and coordinating housing resources and helping local governments strategize and coordinate to achieve shared housing goals.

The agreement between the local governments for a housing services administrator requires the provider to create a one-stop shop for all affordable housing needs.

Those responsibilities include coordinating with local governments on affordable housing efforts and ensuring compliance with Proposition 123, which unlocks access to state affordable housing funds. Responsibilities also include creating, managing and enforc- ing deed restrictions and supervising lotteries and buyer selection to ensure properties are sold in line with those restrictions. These tasks have been done piecemeal until this point, with the affordable housing developers working with Ouray and Ridgway to help potential homebuyers navigate requirements, determine eligibility and make selections as well as provide enforcement if necessary.

Educating residents and helping them navigate affordable housing programs and resources is also a key part of the job and one she’s equipped for, having been in their shoes. She believes there’s stigma and misunderstanding that deed restrictions are only for low-income residents, which is not the case.

Henson said she didn’t understand area median income before going through the process of purchasing a deed-restricted home herself.

“So, going through that firsthand experience, (I want) to be able to help others understand that it’s not a low-income program necessarily. It actually covers a large spectrum,” she said.

Henson’s first goal starting in 2026 is to create an inventory of deed-restricted housing and establish a website and an online portal for residents to browse and apply for available affordable housing. Another top priority is creating standard deed restrictions for those units, looking to examples from other housing administrators across the state.

She has been training since November with Impact Development Services, which has managed deed-restricted homes built by Rural Homes in Ridgway and Ouray.

She hopes compiling data on available affordable housing will enable local governments to be more strategic about planning and developing more affordable housing in the future.

“How do you start to carve into what’s already been created? And then you can start to lean into your housing needs assessment report that says, ‘Where’s the gap?’” Henson said. “That stuff gets me excited. And start to see that data, it fuels me.”