Virtually everyone who’s lived in Steamboat Springs for longer than a decade waxes nostalgic about the dodgy hovels that provided their first homes in the ski resort community. Mine was a groundfloor apartment infested with earwigs that covered the floors, walls, and ceilings every summer. The “shanty” is how one of my friends refers to the drafty cabin that initially sheltered her. Even Jason Peasley, a well-known name around town these days, shakes his head when he remembers the “sketchy little stained-glass house” he occupied when he moved to Steamboat at 24 years old.
Seventeen years later, Peasley now lives in a handsome townhome with his wife, a teacher in the local school district, and two elementary-school-age daughters. But as the executive director of the Yampa Valley Housing Authority since 2012, Peasley—who embodies the mountain-dude look thanks to his trail shoes, trucker cap, and wiry red beard that collects icicles when he skis—sees mounting evidence that upward mobility is
