People want to live and work in Colorado's mountain towns. The work can be found, but it's the affordable housing that's a longtime challenge.
Perhaps it will take bigger thinking, and smaller homes, like the ones coming to Salida, Colorado's new tiny home community, River View at Cleora.
There will be 200 tiny homes on permanent foundations, along with a restaurant, which will be regular size, parks that are also regular size, and a walking trail, which will not be pencil thin, but typically proportioned.
The homes will range in size from 260 to 427 square feet of living space, and all of them will be rentals; 140 of them monthly, and 60 of them will rent by the night.
"It's going to be very affordable for the local workforce. We're going to bum line utilities rent, all that - get brand new tiny homes for 40 percent less than what the current going market rate is in the Salida community," said Rod Stambaugh, president of Sprout Tiny Homes, the company building the community.
Stambaugh says there are already thousands of people who have expressed interest in living there.
Rent for the tiny homes will start around $750 per month up to $1,400, including utilities.
Salida has approved the project. Construction is set to begin in the spring.
Salida's project could pave the way for even more mountain towns getting tiny home communities, Stambaugh told Next.
He says other towns have won grants from the Tiny Home Industry Association to plan tiny home communities.
"Steamboat Springs, Pagosa Springs and Fort Morgan are the cities that won that award so there are definitely some wheels in motion for additional communities to be built -- tiny home communities, to solve the workforce housing challenge," said Stambaugh.
