About
Built in one of the hardest places to build
Mountain Housing Partners brings years of workforce housing experience from North Lake Tahoe and Truckee to communities across California.
Our story
Building in mountain towns is different
Heavy snow loads, short building seasons, high construction costs and strict environmental review stop many projects before they start. We learned how to get housing built under those conditions through years of workforce housing work at Tahoe Housing Hub and Housing Trust Tahoe in North Lake Tahoe and Truckee.
That work taught us the answer is rarely one big stick-built project. It's a series of smaller, creative ones, like an ADU in a backyard, a few homes on a church's unused land, or a small multifamily building made in a factory and engineered for local snow loads. We've helped more than 80 homeowners pursue ADUs, researched more than 30 factory-built manufacturers, and pulled together the partners needed to move projects forward.
We also know that housing gets built when communities understand and support it. Between us we bring years of public outreach, government and communications experience, and we make engagement part of the project from the start.
We're small on purpose. It lets us be creative, flexible and quick, and it means you work directly with the people doing the work.
Track record
Experience built in North Lake Tahoe and Truckee
Our founders, Erin Casey and Shelly Purdy, have led workforce housing work at Tahoe Housing Hub and Housing Trust Tahoe. Mountain Housing Partners brings that experience to mountain communities beyond North Lake Tahoe and Truckee.
- 80+ homeowners helped to pursue ADUs in the Tahoe-Truckee region over the past 3 years
- 30+ factory-built manufacturers researched for financial stability, snow-load engineering and track record
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Tahoe Housing Hub
A nonprofit that helps housing project applicants navigate the approval process, and advocates for streamlined approvals, better incentives and community support for housing.
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Housing Trust Tahoe
A nonprofit that acquires and preserves workforce housing in the Tahoe region.
Mountain Housing Partners is separate from both nonprofits and does not speak for them.
Our team
The people doing the work
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Erin Casey
Co-Founder & Principal
Erin has spent more than 20 years leading community organizations in the nonprofit and government sectors, across economic development, workforce housing, public transportation and environmental protection. Years in county government in the Tahoe area, including leading public outreach on large-scale projects, taught her how public projects really move, and how to bring residents and stakeholders along.
Erin is the founder and CEO of Tahoe Housing Hub and Housing Trust Tahoe. At the Hub she launched the ADU Accelerator, which has worked with more than 80 homeowners, and wrote the Hub's ADU white paper on how to get more ADUs built in the region. She founded Housing Trust Tahoe to acquire and preserve housing for the local workforce. She has also served on the Mountain Housing Council and previously led the North Tahoe Community Alliance's sponsorship and grant program.
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Shelly Purdy
Co-Founder & Principal
Shelly brings more than 30 years of experience leading complex marketing, community outreach and engagement campaigns across many sectors. She began her career in broadcast journalism covering environmental issues, earning a commendation from the U.S. Senate for her reporting on Lake Tahoe, and went on to work in television programming, documentary filmmaking and corporate video production.
At Tahoe Housing Hub, Shelly has guided homeowners through the ADU Accelerator from first conversation to construction, and led "Voices for Housing," a film series sharing local workers' housing stories. She and her husband, Jeremy, own Jeremy Purdy Construction, which builds custom homes in the Tahoe area, so she knows the building side of housing firsthand.
Shelly grew up in Olympic Valley and raised her family in Truckee. She spent 10 years on the Excellence in Education Foundation board and has served on the advisory board of the Radio Television Digital News Association's Environmental Journalism Center.
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Jeremy Purdy
Partner & Construction Lead
Jeremy has been building homes in the Truckee-Tahoe area since 1996. He grew up in construction, starting as a teenager in his father's home and highway construction business, and went on to earn a business degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, and to race on the World Cup mountain bike circuit before founding Jeremy Purdy Construction.
Hands-on in every phase of a build, from concrete and plumbing to cabinetry and finish work, Jeremy knows what it takes to build well in mountain conditions, with heavy snow, short seasons and demanding sites. He is always looking for a smarter, more efficient and more creative way to build, which makes him a natural fit for factory-built and small-scale housing. His company, Jeremy Purdy Construction, Inc., holds California contractor license #885247.