Since February, five employees have resigned from the Housing Authority of Montezuma County.
The vacancies came in the wake of its governing board giving its executive director of 37 years three days’ notice to leave the organization at the end of January. That move – coupled with other concerns – caused its interim executive director to resign.
Three other employees subsequently submitted resignation letters.
Its governing board said that it’s working diligently to fill those positions now, but former employees are concerned that the vacancies will make the housing authority “suffer long-term consequences,” said former Interim Executive Director Tammy Samora.
“Things have to be done in a timely manner,” Samora said. “It terrifies me how it’s gone on this long. … They (the board) don’t know enough about a housing authority to know how bad it’s going to fall.”
“It’s pretty scary because people need help every day,” former Executive Director Terri Wheeler added.
At present, there’s one property manager, one bookkeeper and a receptionist to run its several programs that well over a thousand people in the community rely on.
And there are hundreds more on the waitlist for those programs, said Samora.
One employee that’s still in the office said they’re unsure how behind they are, “but a lot of people are calling about the programs, and it’s sad we can’t help them or give them any information.”
They reported feeling “overwhelmed.”
“Everyone with knowledge of the programs is gone,” Samora said. “Nobody had cross-training. We knew all the departments, all the offices. They don’t have that now, it’s a void.”
“When I go to the front desk now, it’s a lot of ‘I don’t know, I don’t know,’ and ‘I can’t answer that,’” said Janice Grasse, a tenant.
Another tenant who asked not to be named expressed concerns for the future of the housing authority as an organization, and felt insecurity in his housing, fearing someone “might come in and raise the rent.”
Governing board member Jim Candelaria said, “There’s a few gaps, obviously. Nobody’s going to dance around that. But we’re working diligently to fill those positions.”
“In my opinion, nobody’s in jeopardy of anything,” he said. “We’re just trying to figure things out.”
Board Chairman Chris Ludington echoed Candelaria’s comment and added that they’re at least doing “the bare minimum” because “we obviously don’t want people to lose their housing.”
Both Candelaria and Ludington underscored that tenants ought not be concerned about losing their homes.
As it stands, there’s no time frame on when the vacancies will be filled. So far, a few people have applied and the board will be conducting interviews on April 3.
Plus, on March 26, Chairman Ludington emailed former employees the vacant job postings and encouraged them to apply.
“The positions are open and anyone can apply to them,” he said.
Samora said she felt “insulted” by the email, and questioned why they’d “waste time” putting her and other experienced employees through interviews “in an urgent time like this.”
“It just shows their (the board) lack of care and knowledge about what they’re doing,” she said.
And if they hire someone from the outside, Samora said, “It’s just so crazy because who’s going to train them?”
To that, Ludington said, “I don’t know how to answer that.”
So Candeleria took the lead.
They’ve reached out to housing authorities in Delta and Montrose counties to help with training, and they’re also working with a company called The Nelrod Co., which “works with housing authorities,” said Candelaria.
Samora said that all housing authorities use different software, and “they can’t just bring in someone from another housing authority” to run things.
Terri Wheeler, its former executive director of 37 years, said the same.
“It takes a long time to learn these programs,” Samora said. “You can’t just pull someone off the street to do this work, it’s really particular.”
“They can replace our bodies, yes, but not our compassion and the way we worked as a team,” said Martika Myers, a former property manager who had her last day at the housing authority on Feb. 20.
When Myers submitted her resignation letter, the governing board’s Chairman Chris Ludington, in her opinion, took “no care to resolve any issues.”
“He said ‘Thank you for what you’ve done, and good luck in what you do next’,” said Myers.
Breana Collins, who ran the Housing Choice Voucher Program, said her last day was March 6.
In her absence, “people looking for housing won’t get any help with vouchers or housing credits,” said Collins.
In Montezuma County, 262 families utilize the program, which is essentially a rental assistance program.
Samora explained it as homeowners renting out their house “at subsidized price to fit within the program.” Tenants pay 30-40% of their income in rent, and the housing authority writes a check to cover the rest.
Collins traditionally writes those checks, and her position is vacant.
“If they don’t get their payment, they won’t want to rent out their unit anymore,” Samora said. “So where will those people live?”
There haven’t been any late payments to date.
But Donna Darland, a homeowner who’s been a landlord in the voucher program for 32 years now, is skeptical she’ll be paid come April 1.
“I haven’t heard a thing,” Darland said. “Never have I seen this before. This is the first time this has happened.”
Darland said there’s an older lady wanting to move out of her residence and that she found another unit within the voucher program, but “there’s nobody there to move her to another unit.”
“They need to get someone in there who will run things,” said Darland.
Samora and Collins reached out saying they were willing to go back and try to fix things in the meantime.
“I’m out of my hurt stage and into the, ‘Oh my God, the people,’” Samora said. “It’s hard to watch this.”
Neither of them heard back from the board until Chairman Ludington sent the email on March 26 encouraging them to reapply.
The former employees agreed they would be uninterested in returning unless “there was a whole new board.”
“I voluntarily resigned, yes, but I wouldn’t have done that if something wasn’t very, very wrong,” Samora said. “I felt like I had no choice.”
“The place has changed, it’s not at all what it used to be,” Collins said. “If there had been changes, I would’ve stayed there absolutely.”
Janice Bell, a tenant at Calkins Commons for the almost four years now, emphasized how “the atmosphere isn’t the same anymore.”
“Nobody’s smiling, nobody’s around to take care of things in the office,” Bell said. “This all left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m going to leave as soon as I can.”
The board holds that its working to fill the five vacant positions and that “nobody is in jeopardy at all,” said Candelaria.
