APCHA opens up home repair grant program to Category 4 homeowners

Steven Miller, a homeowner at Burlingame Ranch Phase I with his wife and their two kids, took advantage of the APCHA Essential Repairs Pilot Grant Program to address plumbing issues in one of the bathrooms in their home.
Steven Miller/Courtesy photo

Affordable housing owners in a higher income bracket are eligible for reimbursement funds from APCHA to address unit-specific health and safety concerns.

Homeowners up to APCHA income Category 4 are eligible for reimbursement funds from the housing authority to address unit-specific health and safety concerns. The pilot program launched in October 2023 and expanded to Category 4 earners with the APCHA board’s approval in January and Aspen City Council’s approval in February.

“One of the big overarching goals of this program is how can we invest in the life of units in our inventory and … maintain as many of our deed-restricted units as possible?” said Liz Axberg, who oversees the program as a housing policy analyst with the City of Aspen. “Not putting off costs on the future affordable home buyers, either, (is also a goal).”



As of Monday, the program has received 68 applications. Axberg said 28 have been approved, 30 denied, and 10 are still pending. Eight Category 4 homeowners have applied, some of which are applications from earlier in the program that are now being re-reviewed.

“There are some people who are now technically Category 4 income earners, but they live in a Category 3 unit,” Axberg said. “We thought in this way, we can include these now Category 4 owners in the program and invest in the life of these lower category units.”



For example, if a person bought a Category 4 unit and is now retired with a Category 1 income, they were always eligible for the program funds. If a person owns a Category 3 unit but now makes a Category 4 income, they can apply.

The APCHA income category breakdown by household size.
Credit APCHA

Axberg said the most common repair on applications is window replacement. Hunter Creek Condominiums have a few electrical panel requests, but Axberg said no other development is showing a significant trend in requests.

Any homeowner of an APCHA deed-restricted property whose income falls within Category 1-4 and is in good standing with their HOA and APCHA is eligible. The grant requires a 10-40% match which runs in congruence with the income categories, i.e. a Category 1 homeowner must pay 10% of the repair bill. Full program details can be found on the APCHA website.

The homeowner is required to pay their contractor first and get the reimbursement later. To address liquidity concerns, Axberg said she works to have the reimbursement returned in about two weeks — a short enough time period to fit the expense and the reimbursement on a credit card statement. 

The program also requires the property to have a modern APCHA deed restriction. Axberg said three expiring deed restrictions have been updated in exchange for the repair funds. A modern deed restriction that might not be the most updated version from APCHA is permissible, she said.

About half of the original $400,000 in funding from the county and city is available. The program will accept applications until the funds are exhausted. Axberg said she and APCHA will evaluate the future of the program after this cycle of funding.

How the money is being used in people’s homes

Steven Miller applied in January for the funds to help with a plumbing project at his 3-bedroom Burlingame Ranch Phase I unit. His household is a Category 3 income level and their unit is Category 3. He, his wife, and their twins moved from a 2-bedroom unit in Burlingame II to Burlingame I about two years ago after bidding on a larger place to accommodate their growing family. They’d lived in their Burlingame II unit for 8 years, he said.

Miller, who is on the Burlingame I Homeowners’ Association board, said issues with cracked tile and grout were evident from move-in. They’ve worked on updating and improving the unit as finances allowed.

“We replaced our windows and have done all this other work kind of in parallel to what was going on with the bathroom just to get our place, honestly, up to a livable, safe standard. And the bathroom was kind of that last step that we knew was going to be a pretty full-on project,” he said. “Originally, it was kind of looming in my future to deal with myself. So having the grant money and having the ability to have a professional do it and know that it’s done right, is definitely huge (for my) peace of mind.”

Gutting the bathroom at their Burlingame Ranch Phase I unit revealed some water damage and mold, said owner Steven Miller.
Steven Miller/Courtesy photo

Their bathroom ended up needing close to a full demolition after they found calcified valves that led to water leaks and mold in the drywall. The repair work is almost finished and Miller expects it to cost about $10,000, so he will receive about $7,000 back through the program.

Miller said they’ve used APCHA funds to replace the windows in their house and a Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) grant to replace their stove since they moved in, estimating about $25,000-30,000 of capital invested into their unit. The upstairs bathroom is next on the repair list, and Miller said that they likely won’t get to it until next year. 

He urged more homeowners to take advantage of the program to address unit-specific concerns, as HOA-level responsibilities are not eligible for funding through this program.

“There just is not an understanding or communication to owners that they own ‘from the drywall in’ and that’s their responsibility and the HOA deals with the exterior, the roof, and in some cases, some of the plumbing and heating, but otherwise, it’s their responsibility,” he said. “I see this program as an opportunity first and foremost to mitigate legitimate issues for our health and safety in our unit, but also just improve the quality of our place. And make living there more happy.”

The expansion to Category 4 earners opened eligibility to more homeowners in Centennial Condominiums, as every unit in the project is Category 4. There are some residents in lower income categories, however, and Axberg said she has received three applications from Category 1 Centennial homeowners. One accepted application will go toward window replacement, and the other two applications still pending are for window replacement and an accessibility modification.

Jason Closic is a Centennial Condominium homeowner and longtime board member of their HOA. The HOA has been involved in years of litigation with the city, Pitkin County, and APCHA over financial responsibility for structural repairs the HOA blamed on “decades of water damage caused by shoddy construction and poor design.”  

He praised APCHA for its decision to pivot toward a focus on maintaining existing stock, but said the issues at Centennial have been estimated to cost $10-20 million across the 92 condos.

“It’s a great idea. It’s very forward thinking but it just seems like they drew a line and said, ‘Okay, we’ve got this whole Centennial issue, let’s just sideline that because we can’t even process that,’” he said. “The grant program is a great idea. And it should hopefully solve problems for a lot of people, but we’re just, we’re in a just a different category, literally and figuratively.”