High Valley Manor and staff win prestigious awards

MONTE VISTA—At the 18th Annual Rural Development Multi-Family Housing conference earlier this month, the High Valley Manor in Monte Vista defeated over 130 other multi-family complexes in the state to win several awards. High Valley Manor, a complex under the San Luis Valley Housing Coalition, won the 2016 USDA Colorado Multi Family Property of the Year; 2016 Family Site Manager of the Year went to Shawna James, and 2016 Family Maintenance Person of the Year went to Luther Waldroupe.
James has been High Valley Manor’s manager for seven years. This is the second time that she has won the site manager of the year, the first time in 2010 and she was nominated last year as well. San Luis Valley Housing Coalition Executive Director Dawn Melgares praised James’ hard work: “Shawna does a great job of making this feel like home, not low-income housing.”
James stated that in addition to her usual duties she puts together barbecues, holiday dinners and other activities for the building’s residents. She also organizes their community garden and decorates the flowerbeds, keeping the grounds looking vibrant regardless of the season. “This is a home,” stated James, “We live in an apartment building. Just because this is low-income housing doesn’t mean it’s not a nice home. We’re not ashamed to say we live at High Valley.”
Jessica Martin, MFH loan specialist with Rural Development, also stated of James, “In the heart of this complex is the site manager who has struggled through the ups and downs, however she has continued to keep a positive attitude and move forward for the benefit of the tenants.” Martin also provided some of the tenants’ comments about James in her nomination, including “She is a wonderful manager; she goes beyond to help others.” “She does have a whole lot of patience and understanding. This goes beyond just the business end of managing operations.”
Waldroupe has been with High Valley Manor for three years. James stated that he “goes above and beyond for tenants…he will do anything he can do within the allowable regulations.” Some of the manor’s tenants added remarks like “He is amazing; this man works really hard and he does everything with quality.” “I would be very sad if he wasn’t working here; I adore him. He is friendly, funny, kind and a hard worker.” Martin added that Waldroupe is “a true professional.”
The 33-unit complex has undergone several changes in the last several months, and the improvements will continue, thanks to a grant from the Colorado Division of Housing that Melgares completed the application for. The whole project will cost $685,000, with $535,000 coming from the grant, $135,000 from a state loan and the remainder from reserve funds. The second and third floors now have laundry rooms and the building has new boilers, hot water heaters, energy efficient lighting in the common areas, a repaved parking lot and a new pond. The pond was an unplanned improvement that occurred when repaving the parking lot, as it helps remove the standing water. New windows and doors have been added where needed to improve some of the unit’s heat retention and circulation. “One of the biggest compliments about the renovation that we have received is when tenants told us that they had to turn their heat down in February, because one of the biggest problems had been how cold the building was,” James joked. The ADA apartments have recently been completely remodeled, costing nearly $70,000 each. They now have roll-in showers with removable benches, new flooring, new windows, new doors, new ADA appliances and other major changes. The ADA apartments are currently the only two units in the building that are not occupied because their renovation was just completed. “By upgrading a lot of our equipment we can help make our costs and our tenants’ costs lower,” Melgares stated.
High Valley Manor is looking at more improvements this year as well as community improvement projects this year and in 2018. The community room rehabilitation should be completed later this year and the housing coalition is halfway through the replacement of all of the bathtubs in the building. VEGI (Valley Educational Garden Initiative) donated some wood to raise some of the garden beds this summer. All of the hallways will be repainted and there will be new décor for the hallways and the community room.
In 2018, James, Melgares and the coalition are working with rural development to put together lunches for school children in the summertime in the community room, as some may be reliant on school-provided meals for a healthy diet and suffer when school is not in session. “We will continue to do more upgrades and look at more funding and grants as we need to,” Melgares said positively. She added “This award isn’t possible without not only the staff but the volunteer board of directors, the staff of Rural Development and the Division of Housing.”


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