Blue River Apartments in Silverthorne could go from a more affordable tax credit type of complex to market rate in 2024. Do all the current residents know this? I didn’t until I signed a new lease and happened to complain about the sewer bill going up again.

It wasn’t really the staff’s fault; no one had even told them! They had to read it in the Summit Daily News, but I did not see that article.

I originally moved here as an extremely low-income disabled person on Supplemental Security Income because I got a Section 8 housing voucher when they still had some in Summit County. I wanted to stay in Idaho Springs, but no vouchers were available there. Now, I have been here over 10 years, and I thought I could stay forever, but I am retired and on Social Security.

But come 2024, my apartment could go to market-rate rent, even with a Section 8 voucher. I will not be able to stay because my income is too low to cover the higher rental cost.

Now, with all the concern for housing for workers, no one really seems to care about residents already here on very low incomes who are being forced to leave.

Silverthorne or the county should try to intervene and perhaps purchase the Blue River Apartments, keeping at least some of the units at cheaper prices. No need to build something new this time. Just make sure owners cannot go off the list of those offering lower-income housing availability. They could, for example, have made my unit one of these. Now I face homelessness as there are so many waiting lists for low-income, senior and disabled housing. And I face expensive moving costs and the stress of all the changes at an older age.