Home Trust reports turnkey start for county housing administration, wins $25,000 deed‑restriction database grant

Eva Henson, housing services director with Home Trust of Ouray County, opened a quarterly update to county leaders by describing the administrator’s role and a first‑year work plan covering intergovernmental liaison, deed‑restriction administration, financial management and resident support.

Henson said she started Oct. 14, 2025, the same date the contract began, and that Home Trust completed an electronic transfer of hundreds of deed‑restriction files and the related training with the prior administrator. “We actually completed all of the electronic transfer of hundreds and hundreds of electronic files to Home Trust,” Henson said, adding that the new public‑facing deed‑restriction page includes covenants, forms and capital‑improvement requests.

The presentation emphasized compliance work tied to the state Prop 1/2/3 program. Henson said Ouray County completed adoption of expedited (fast‑track) review in December 2025, Ridgeway completed it in November and the city of Ouray is targeting 2026. She said Home Trust is coordinating a regional approach to unit‑count commitments and reported the current targets discussed with partners: Town of Ridgeway 10 units, City of Ouray 9 units and Ouray County 6 units, while noting potential redistributions as inventories are reviewed.

She described new administrative tools and funding: Home Trust drafted a tenant‑selection policy to govern marketing and lease‑ups, revised capital‑improvement policy language to align with other deed‑restriction administrators, and said the organization won a $25,000 Western Colorado Community grant to build a Kintone cloud database to track deed‑restricted units, AMIs, bedroom counts and other inventory fields. “Right now, it’s been administered through an Excel spreadsheet… Kintone software is actually the same software that San Miguel Regional Housing Authority is using,” Henson said.

Henson also reviewed reporting duties under the Local Planning Capacity Grant from the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), noting monthly tracking and a quarterly narrative report that the county must submit; she told commissioners she had already provided a draft narrative to the county and reminded the board of a Jan. 30 reporting milestone tied to reimbursement requests.

Commissioners raised policy questions and examples from other jurisdictions: one commissioner asked about “banking” unit counts when a single large project brings many units online in one year; Henson said the legislation’s baseline methodology and AMI definitions have created challenges and that Home Trust and regional peers are tracking proposed fixes. Commissioners also discussed deed‑restriction provisions such as retirement exceptions and household‑income versus marital rules; Henson said many deed restrictions have been updated over time and that some changes require owners to re‑record covenants.

The board praised county attorney Leo Casselli for drafting the region’s first shared unit‑count intergovernmental agreement; staff and commissioners noted DOLA approved a $50,000 incentive tied to completing expedited review. The board asked staff to schedule a February work session so the commissioners and partners can decide how to allocate that $50,000 and complete the related DOLA reporting by mid‑March.

Next steps: Home Trust will continue quarterly reporting to the three jurisdictions (Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct), begin Kintone implementation with county IT, and return with updated unit counts and the pilot implementation results for the six‑plex (835 2nd Street) and other early projects.

The board opened the floor for questions and scheduled follow‑up briefings; the meeting then moved on to a separate set of goals and priorities work sessions.