I’ve followed the chaos at Montezuma County Housing Authority with tremendous sadness, as well as a little anger.
When I returned to Colorado in 2020, I rented a darling unit at the senior property in Dolores. However, when I pulled up to unpack my truck, I was greeted by an angry neighbor who began warning me to keep quiet and that I better “behave myself” because he was good friends with the director and would get me kicked out “just like the last tenant.” That was the beginning of five years of unrelenting harassment on the part of my neighbor. The property manager did nothing, even when provided video.
At one point, I wrote to the county commissioners asking them to intervene, but was told by Jim Candelaria that I needed to show up at a meeting and discuss my housing situation in a public forum. Concerned about my right to privacy and safety, I declined and instead obtained legal services, and contacted my congressional representative requesting an inquiry into the Housing Authority’s refusal to adhere to its own policies and protect tenant rights.
At the same time, the longtime director took a leave of absence and the assistant director took the time to view the many video recordings of my neighbor’s violations, harassment and profanity. She was not only highly knowledgeable about federal and state housing policies, but was refreshingly diplomatic, respectful and compassionate. She addressed my concerns, as well as those presented by the amazing attorney at Colorado Legal Services, with professionalism, and the years of harassment came to an immediate end.
That woman’s name was Tammy Samora, and she is one of the valuable and dedicated employees who recently resigned from the Housing Authority. I’m an old woman, who has lived all over the world, and never, in nearly seven decades of life, have I come across anyone as qualified to serve the public and lead an agency like the Housing Authority, as Samora. Her staff adored her, tenants respected and trusted her, and in a county as remote as Montezuma, she is pure treasure.
The fact that our county commissioners have allowed these loyal professionals to leave because the commissioners failed to keep abreast of what was happening at the Housing Authority for years, is a crime against all of us. The only vacancies I would like to see at the county would be the positions of county commissioners, who all appear to be big, bloated fish in a rapidly stagnating pond.
Hire Samora and her staff back with raises. Let her do what she does best. The people of Montezuma County deserve nothing less.
Summer Kabakoro is a former Dolores resident currently living in Hawaii.
