After 30 years, Greeley and Weld county housing authorities will operate separately – Greeley Tribune

After 30 years, Weld County will end its intergovernmental agreement with the city of Greeley to jointly manage the housing authorities of both governments.

The move was publicly acknowledged during a Nov. 12 Greeley City Council work session during a review of the housing authority. On Oct. 22, Weld County notified the Housing Authority of the county’s intent to resume operating its own housing authority.

Weld County Commissioner Scott James, who was appointed to the board of the Greeley Weld Housing Authority in July, clarified that while the city called the leadership change a “bifurcation,” the two entities never merged as one.

“It’s not a bifurcation because the two housing services have never been one,” James said. “They were simply under a management agreement where we hired and retained a joint staff.”

In 1994, at the suggestion of current Greeley Mayor Pro Tem Dale Hall, when he was a Weld County Commissioner, the city and county entered into an agreement to jointly manage the housing authorities of Greeley and Weld counties. This saved money in the budget of both entities that paid individual employees. Despite the common name, housing and operating bodies have never been formally united as a single housing service.

With the resignation of Housing Executive Director Tom Teixeira in June, the district decided now would be a good breaking point for the deal. Increased oversight of the Weld Housing Authority will come in handy in the Coordinated Planning Agreements (CPAs) the county has been working on with dozens of cities over the past few months, James said.

“As we work on CPAs with our individual municipalities that address how each municipality wants to grow and how we can honor that in Weld County, we can talk about the affordable housing needs in each of our communities,” he said .

Sean Walcott, a board member of the Greeley-Weld Housing Authority, isn’t sure how the event could affect their operations in the long run. With the termination of the agreement, the Greeley housing authority will leave the bulk of the responsibility to the families participating in the program, he said.

While Walcott is confident Greeley has the means to handle the work ahead, he is concerned about how the county will handle it after being so far removed from the Greeley-Weld housing authority over the past few years.

“I think it could be a positive or a negative depending on how the county commissioners run their side of the house,” Wolcott said. “We’re sure we’ll continue to work with them and coordinate resources, but we’re not sure what their plans are for the housing authority and what’s going to happen.”

With the process expected to be completed by 1 February 2025, both housing authorities want to reassure people in need that there will be no impact on the authority’s current services. It is essentially a change of leadership and it should not be felt or affected by anyone in either community.