There was a time when homeownership seemed like a faraway dream for Cuica Montoya. She'd gone through a traumatic "family breakup" after years as a successful real estate agent. It so destabilized her life that she ended up without a home, then fell into drug and alcohol addiction as she struggled to cope. In the depths of her spiral, she spent time living outside in Denver, the city where she grew up.
But with her family's help, Montoya waded out of homelessness and substance abuse. She enrolled in a transitional program offered by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, then became an advocate for people struggling to find shelter. In 2020, she became the manager of the Colorado Village Collaborative's (CVC's) Safe Outdoor Site (SOS) program, which sets up sanctioned campsites for people with nowhere else to go as they work towards more permanent homes.
Her new job gave her the resources she needed to buy a house of her own, just east of Denver's border with Aurora. The purchase was a huge deal, but she never expected what would come next. Late last year, she got word she'd be featured on HGTV's "Build it Forward," a reality home-flipping show that highlights the work of people doing good for their communities. Her episode airs this weekend, on June 17 and 18.
Montoya said accepting this honor was tricky.
"Build it Forward" is a collaboration between HGTV and Lowe's Home Improvement, an extension of Lowe's Hometowns community impact program. CVC applied for, and won, a grant from Lowe's Hometowns to support their work. That put the organization in the running to get featured on the show.
Montoya said her colleagues surprised her with the news they'd been selected, and it'd be her house that was getting a flip. She found it a little difficult to process.
"I felt just super grateful to be able to afford to buy a home, to work in a livable wage job at an organization that sees the value that I bring as a leader," she told us. "It felt really epic and like, I don't deserve this."
But her friends and coworkers pushed her to enjoy the little spotlight. HGTV put her up in an Airbnb near Cheesman Park where she lived between January and April, then invited her back home to see how the crew transformed her house.
"I was blown away. You know, I struggle with imposter syndrome a lot, just because of my journey and how I got here and how I'm living into my purpose," she said. "But, you know, everybody was like, 'You deserve it, Cuica.' And, you know, it's an honor just to show up in my life as it is today. And then to be helping all of the people that are just like me, on their own journeys of recovering from homelessness, that's the biggest icing on the cake. And then this is like, oh my goodness."
HGTV added about 200 square feet to her home.
Discovery, which owns HGTV, asked us not to photograph Montoya's revamped place, so you'll have to tune in to see what it looks like. But we can tell you a little bit about it.
They painted and redecorated, filling rooms with mid-mod furnishings to her liking. They made her a custom stand for her piano (she's a virtuoso, her mother, Carol Beck-Jackson, told us). They knocked down some walls and built new ones to extend her living room, which made room for a huge live-edge table right in the middle.
All of their changes were rooted in conversations they had with Montoya. That last bit, the table, was central to her vision of what her home should represent.
"Four walls are very treasured, but the care and love that went into making this space a home, from hearing all of my journey and my wishes, I'm able to just have moments of self care, moments to gather with my family, which is so important," she said. "Because, you know, when you go through a journey like mine, sometimes you lose access to your family because of boundaries or things like that."
Her mom, who attended the big reveal with her in April, beamed with pride.
"Oh, very proud, my God. Incredibly proud. Incredibly proud and thrilled for her," Beck-Jackson laughed. "I'm so thrilled that through prayer and her own incredible nature, her steadfastness, her resilience, her brilliance, she's into the role that she's meant to be in, and that she can give back."
And while Montoya did still reckon with her imposter syndrome, she said it was important to seize this opportunity to tell her story in a bigger way. Being open about her own journey is a path toward broader healing, she told us, a way to remove stigma that may stop some from asking for help.
"The more people that have recovered from life challenges talk about them, the more people will realize they're not alone and they're not isolated and that they can connect with people," she told us. "That connection in that community is really what helps people move forward in their lives. It was community that brought me here."
