On Aug. 24, at a joint meeting of the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) and the Pagosa Springs Town Council, Commissioner Veronica Medina expressed opposition to the idea of creating a new multi-jurisdictional housing authority.
The idea of a new local housing authority came about as the town and county are in the process of working out a draft housing action plan to meet the requirements of the Proposition 123 funding taken by both entities.
Proposition 123 is a voter-approved state law that created a dedicated, ongoing funding stream for local governments to support affordable housing.
One of the requirements of taking the funding is that local governments must make a multiyear commitment to expand their affordable housing stock and draft a housing action plan to show how they intend to expand housing in the community.
At the meeting, Mary Chase, representing ECOnorthwest, updated the two elected bodies about the progress being made on the housing action plan.
She explained that the draft housing action plan was based on a housing needs assessment adopted by both the BoCC and town council in 2025.
A slide show, presented by Chase, describes a housing needs assessments as telling “the story of housing needs in the community,” while housing action plans “are 6-year action-driven guides to addressing those needs.”
Chase explained that it’s a requirement of the housing action plan to have a long-term affordability strategy, a displacement mitigation plan and to show “standard affordability strategies.”
But, Medina pointed out that she noticed in the draft housing action plan a plan to set up a new multi-jurisdictional housing authority.
She claimed that it’s not a requirement of the housing action plan, nor of Proposition 123, to set up a new local housing authority.
“I feel like [this draft housing action plan] misses the mark on what’s expected of us to do,” she said.
She cited the fact that the Archuleta County Housing Authority (ACHA) already exists.
While not a direct department of the county government, the ACHA is a board with governing documents and often collaborates with the county on affordable housing projects.
The ACHA manages local housing complexes, such as the Rose Mountain Townhomes and Casa de los Arcos.
Medina questioned why “we would create another layer,” or what she called “a duplicate agency,” when the ACHA already exists.
“These are all things that cost a lot of money,” and the county “doesn’t have money to pay for another agency,” she said.
“I agree, Commissioner John Ranson said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Commissioner Warren Brown questioned if the ACHA “might be at its capacity” and unable to take on a bigger role.
Medina responded that she does not think that the ACHA is at capacity, saying she had not heard that from any of her conversations.
Later in the meeting, ACHA board chairman Clifford Lucero said, “We more than have the capacity to do everything you talked about tonight,” in order to meet the requirements of the housing action plan.
Lucero explained that, most recently, ACHA helped “the apartment project by Walmart get going” and is looking to assist to purchase the building by McDonald’s “to get that going.”
“We have the capacity. You guys are more than welcome to come sit down with us to talk to see what we do and what we can do,” he said.
He reiterated the ACHA has the capacity.
“We absolutely do have the capacity,” he said, suggesting that it focuses on those in the 50 percent range of the area median income.
During a work session held by the BoCC the following day, Tuesday, Aug. 25, Medina explained that the ACHA is an established entity that is recognized by the state as the housing authority for Archuleta County.
She also indicated that the county could possibly help contribute funding to help cover the costs associated with managing the deed restrictions on the workforce housing being developed by the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC).
“Well, maybe that’s a conversation we should have, maybe that is something the county could help foot that cost for the [ACHA] to manage that, because at some point … we have an obligation to set some guidance or an objective for our housing authority,” she said. “I think they’ve just been given free reign as far as not really hearing from the county commissioners on what should be done in the community.”
Commissioner Warren Brown spoke about how the community’s entities should be able to work together, indicating that he liked Medina’s suggestion of bringing the ACHA, PSCDC, town and county together to have a housing-specific meeting.
Medina also expressed more dissatisfaction during the work session in regard to the housing action plan that was presented during the joint meeting, stating, “I was not happy with the document at all.”
She explained that felt like there was no real plan, other than to create a multijurisdictional housing authority.
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