A tour last February of the still-under construction Horizon Heights housing on Airport Road in Alamosa gave a glimpse of what the new transitional housing would look like inside and outside. And it gave a sense of how Dawn Melgares and the San Luis Valley Housing Coalition would manage what it calls “gap filler” housing.
Now nine months later, Horizon Heights has found its tenants, including some who moved in and when their contract expired, were able to transition into other housing as the original concept of Horizon Heights intended.
Horizon Heights opened in August. It has 20 units, including one for an on-site manager and one that is used as a laundry room.
“We moved our first resident in on August 15th and were fully occupied by August 26th,” Melgares said.
The first round of occupants was easy to find, she said, since SLV Housing had been taking applications about a month before the anticipated opening date and ribbon cutting.
“We are currently looking to fill two units for the second time as we have already had two successfully find permanent housing in the first three months,” she said.
Asked what has SLV Housing has learned in its initial effort to get individuals into housing at Horizon Heights, Melgares responded:
It has not been perfect, but we never promised it would be, and we are all learning as we move forward.
Dawn Melgares
“Our housing needs are greater than what we can provide but there is hope. We already had others on our waitlist find housing elsewhere and they no longer needed Horizon when a unit was available. This means that landlords are opening up to the idea of giving people a chance.”
Here’s The Citizen’s original story on Horizon Heights from February and the YouTube video that is among the most-watched videos produced by Alamosa Citizen in 2024.
“There are always challenges in housing; most we cannot discuss due to privacy policies,” Melgares said. “Our standard is that 20 percent of those we move into any of our properties will struggle in some way. Some residents struggled with getting necessities for being housed. Others struggled with learning to follow rules or to being housed again after long stints of homelessness or couch surfing. But almost all of them have found successes through connections with each other or with resources provided in our community and by SLVBHG that have allowed them to settle in and start making Horizon Heights a home.
“It has not been perfect, but we never promised it would be, and we are all learning as we move forward. We like to count the successes and right now we have 14 people/families who are housed in warm, decent, affordable homes going into the holiday season and we are looking forward to celebrating this success with them into the new year.”