Changemaker: Dawn Melgares
Dawn Melgares said her path to becoming the Executive Director of the San Luis Valley Housing Coalition (SLVHC)—a nonprofit Community Housing Development Organization focused on affordable housing—was not a conventional one.
“I always say I didn’t have this vision for myself,” she explained. “When the previous Executive Director was leaving, one of the board members at the time was a former employee of mine from when I ran a local restaurant. They invited me in to apply, and I honestly did not think I would be the right fit for the role.”
Despite her doubts, in 2015, Dawn interviewed for and accepted the role of Executive Director of SLVHC, which began in 1993 after a group of community members identified a need in the region.
What started as a volunteer-based effort primarily focused on deploying grant funds from the Colorado Division of Housing to support down payment assistance and housing rehabilitation had grown over the years to meet increasing need. When Dawn joined the organization, SLVHC was managing two affordable multifamily rental housing developments, and she was the organization’s only full-time employee. “We had me, a part time office administrator, two part-time maintenance, and two part-time site managers,” she recalled.
Early in her tenure as Executive Director, Dawn had a goal to increase the number of households utilizing down payment assistance and rehabilitation grant funding, and to increase the overall awareness of the organization among community members.
“What we found is that so many people in our community didn’t even know we were here,” she said. “We started getting our faces and our names out there, meeting with community members, funders, and local businesses, and we did that for a couple of years until the grant programs started to pick up. Then we started looking at where else we could get involved in housing solutions.”
By early 2020, the SLVHC had convened a group of organizations to complete the first ever housing market study and action plan for the entire six-county region. The study findings led to a multi-faceted action plan to address housing needs across the region, while being mindful of the unique markets and challenges that exist throughout its various communities.
“The study really showed us where we needed to focus our mission, and where we needed to add on to our programming,” said Dawn. “We’ve really taken it to heart, either by assisting other organizations in fulfilling the recommendation, or we’ve done so ourselves.”
In 2022, SLVHC purchased a mobile home park, staving off a corporate takeover that would have led to rent increases and displacement of residents. In that same year, SLVHC purchased its first single family property and an abandoned school building that the nonprofit is readying for an adaptive reuse conversion to affordable rental housing.
In early 2024, SLVHC purchased a four-unit rental property in Creede. In addition, the nonprofit is partnering with the City of Alamosa to manage Horizon Heights, an 18-unit tiny home community designed to support residents who face various barriers to obtaining market-rate housing but who do not qualify for traditional affordable housing options.
“Our staff was recently talking about how many phone calls we got in one week about Horizon Heights,” Dawn said. “They were wanting to cry when they hung up the phone because people are in situations they never thought they would find themselves in. They have good jobs, but they can’t afford rent. So many of our community members are ending up in that position.”
Another key finding of the housing study was the number of abandoned houses located throughout the Valley, many of which need extensive rehabilitation, and which the community would quickly fill if the units were to become available. Efforts on behalf of the nonprofit to purchase some of these homes have struggled to grain traction so far.
“In our study, we found one community that had over 50 vacant homes,” Dawn explained. “But we found that many of the owners were only willing to accept the price that the home would be worth after rehabilitation was complete, and as a small nonprofit, we just could not front that cost.”
Dawn cited mobile home communities as another key challenge that the nonprofit is grappling with. In the San Luis Valley, these homes are often the only source of nonsubsidized affordable housing in a community. However, many mobile home parks need extensive investment in infrastructure and rehabilitation to remain habitable as units age and long-deferred maintenance needs come due
“Almost every mobile home park in our community is filled with homes from the 1970s and earlier,” Dawn explained. “Most of the infrastructure is that old as well. They’re beyond their lifespan and people are still trying to make them livable. We just haven’t been able to figure out the solution quite yet.”
Today, SLVHC has grown to a staff of seven full-time employees. The nonprofit continues to partner with organizations, businesses, and developers in hopes of bringing more housing units to the San Luis Valley, to rehabilitate houses, and to fulfill the ambitious goals of the housing action plan. Dawn explains that they’ve also evolved into a resource hub for housing challenges, and a go-to for community members in challenging circumstances.
“We get a lot of people calling or walking in the door in desperate need of help and not knowing where to go,” she said. “We’re the boots on the ground, we’re getting people housed, but we can’t do this work without non-restricted funding. But it’s not just about us. It’s about the individuals and organizations out there that fund our work. Without the ability to grow our staff, to provide benefits and offer competitive wages, the work doesn’t happen. Nonprofits need your support so that they can continue supporting their communities.”