Salty is the president and dark overlord of BETCH. She loves only all things outdoors and her dog, Elvis. She has been in Salida for seven years, which has given her the ability to grace Monarch as well as most restaurants in town with her employment at some point. If there’s one thing she truly understands, it’s the struggle to find housing.
This county loves to make decisions about us without us, but Salty’s ultimate mission is to make sure that will never happen again. She manages to attend most housing-related meetings despite holding down a full-time job (a fun point important folks use to justify making decisions without us, we can’t be involved or present because we need to work) and brings a posse when she needs to make some extra noise. She spends most of her free time watching online meetings, reading agendas, and studying building plans and land use code- which is seriously fucking boring, but she does what she needs to do to hold the line in the fight for our voices to be heard, and our perspective to be fully considered.
You can’t solve a problem if you refuse to look at it from all sides.
We can’t solve this crisis if we can’t speak truth about it.
But because Salty has been willing to put herself in the spotlight, in uncomfortable & intimidating situations, the folks in charge are starting to recognize that our perspective is critical. She’s formed relationships with the housing community and advocated to raise income caps across the county. She led the fight against employer buy-in housing, to ensure that employers and landlords would not be given unfair leverage over their employees. Last but certainly not least, she’s spent the last year annoying the shit out of the Chaffee Housing Authority- pushing them to make their board meetings more inclusive, to allow public input, and to make it easier for community members to join their committees. We need Salty! So make sure to show up when she calls :)