San Juan Development Association

Background Statement

SJDA began in 1991 and initially helped to bring workforce housing to the community with Colorado Housing Inc, and provided business advocacy, training, and information. SJDA has a long-time micro loan program that provides local businesses with loans between $500 - $7,500 and most recently provided 9 emergency loans to businesses during COVID.

In 2014 the Gold King Mine Spill resulted in San Juan County partnering with Region 9 EDD for an Economic Development Administration grant to fund a part-time recovery coordinator. That grant was extended until April 2020 after the 416-fire, drought, avalanches and subsequent mudslides to support and drive economic resiliency.

When COVID-19 arrived, SJDA chose to put their resources towards helping our neighbors by providing no/low interest loans, creating a community food bank, and collaborating with regional and state agencies to provide the most effective resources available to our whole community.

At the end of 2020, San Juan County received support from Colorado's Rural Economic Development Incentive (REDI) Grant to fund an Economic Diversification & Resiliency Coordinator part time for 1.5 years with the goal to continue efforts to sustain this position. A contractor was identified and onboarded in March 2021 and has been working on workforce housing, fiber redundancy, and the sustainability of SJDA.