The local affordable-housing authority that oversees ownership units in the program is sending out a survey to homeowner associations to get a handle on how many are underwater with their capital reserves and deferred maintenance.

It is a massive issue at some complexes, such as Centennial, where there is not enough money in the coffer to fix deteriorating buildings.

Elected officials in the city of Aspen and Pitkin County believe it's widespread throughout the program's 1,654 units but much of that is based on anecdotal evidence.

The Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority has been building an interim database for the past two years and counts 81 HOAs in the inventory.

"Our goal is to get good information so we can be of assistance," APCHA Executive Director Mike Kosdrosky said. "We are creating a baseline so that we can have an informed conversation about what's going on in the program."

City and county officials are looking at changing the governance structure of the program, based on their recent impasse on how to address the massive deficits homeowners associations face in their capital reserves, particularly at aging properties.

The city, county and APCHA have been grappling with how to address capital reserves in deed-restricted HOA communities for several years now.

During early discussions, city and county officials reiterated that public funds should only be used as a last resort and that any taxpayer dollars to current homeowners would have to be repaid at some value.

Solutions from the city and county have ranged between $2 million and close to $15 million.

Aspen and Pitkin County equally pay APCHA's administrative costs and manage the program through an intergovernmental agreement.

In a letter to HOA board of directors in the program, Kosdrosky wrote that the survey is part of its "Responsible Governance Assessment, Education and Assistance Plan."

The letter explains that participating in the survey is voluntary, however, if associations do not participate the HOA may result in becoming ineligible to receive potential financial assistance, should it become available.

The survey asks for basic information, such as the name of the HOA, contact information and how many units are in the building.

It gets further in depth with what each HOA's 2018 annual operating budget is, their budgeted capital reserve annual revenue and what the current capital reserve fund balance is.

APCHA also wants to know the HOA's lowest and highest monthly operating assessments, as well as the high and lows of capital reserve assessment charges, and what they are based on.

Kosdrosky said APCHA is looking for information on how HOAs are managed — through a property management company, by the association itself or not at all.

The survey will be mailed to HOA board of directors and also will be available online. The deadline to complete the survey is Sept. 14.

csackariason@aspentimes.com