Habitat builds hope along with housing

The high-noon sun beat down on Lori Patin as she stooped down to the dirt to lift and move a jumbled mess of construction equipment. She crossed the property in West Gunnison, threading through neighborhood kids careening down the street on bikes. Around her, a group of volunteers worked to build what will soon become Patin’s very own home.

“A lot of this comes from people who've been in the community fighting for sustainable building for a long time,” Patin said. “I’m grateful to all the ones that paved the way.”

Patin and Gunnison resident Emma DeHaven are the latest recipients of deed-restricted homes built through the Gunnison Valley Habitat for Humanity’s housing project on South 6th Street. Once complete, they’ll become the nonprofit’s sixth and seventh single-family homes in that neighborhood. 

Since the nonprofit opened in Gunnison in the late 90s, it has served 27 families. Many of the homes built have been “recycled,” meaning a Habitat homeowner passes the home along to another applicant when he or she moves or leaves the valley. All the homes are deed-restricted, with appreciation capped at 3% a year.

“I know those aren’t huge numbers, but I think back of all those families and their lives and how we've impacted them,” said Executive Director Julie Robinson. “A lot of them have successfully moved on from the program, and are now either not in the valley or have moved into private homeownership.”

Every part of the design of the 960-square-foot homes considers environmental sustainability. Robinson is tracking the way volunteers get to the work site — bike, walk or drive — for later reporting. The walls of the homes are filled with cellulose, which is made primarily of recycled fibers, and considered a “greener” building material. The new homes will be fitted with solar panels, and have energy monitors so Habitat and new owners can track usage. 

“We want to teach people how to build more efficiently using different products, so we're not sucking all those natural resources,” Robinson said.  

Although Habitat isn't building housing at the same scale of other entities like Gunnison County or the Town of Crested Butte, each new home is another chance to chip away at the valley’s long standing affordable housing crisis, Robinson said. The nonprofit focuses on homeownership, so residents can “buy-in” to their community and build equity.

All the lots on South 6th Street are zoned as multi-family, so if the board decides to increase density in the future, it would be possible. Last year, the board intended to pursue a “cottage cluster,” or a single property with several homes that share a common yard or green space. 

However the Habitat board later realized that the city’s utility easement runs through the center of the properties, and made the cottage cluster more cumbersome. For now, Habitat settled on the two homes north of the easement. 

The board has yet to decide how to develop the other lots. The utilities (water and sewer) essentially stop at the easement, so development the lots further south will require more infrastructure, money and time. 

As the valley’s major employers look into or start to build employee housing, Habitat’s lots on South 6th Street could be a part of the solution, Robinson said. Despite its focus on homeownership, Habitat wants to help renters remain in the valley. With community partners and financial support, future development could offer higher-density housing at a lower cost.

For Patin, Habitat has permitted her to once again be a homeowner, a rare and increasingly difficult prospect for most in the valley. She moved to Gunnison in the late 70s and spent decades working at a number of small businesses, including a 25-year stint with the Gunnison County Metropolitan Recreation District. 

She put her home in Quartz Creek up for sale right before the valley’s housing market boom during the pandemic. When she browsed the market for another home months later, she was quickly priced out. Patin and DeHaven, soon to be neighbors, have already started dreaming about their adjacent gardens, and the possibility of a fire pit. 

“It's an amazing group,” Patin said “People just show up and start working … I think it's going to be a lot of fun and you'll really have a sense of ownership when the house is done. You'll appreciate what it took.”

(Abby Harrison can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or abby@gunnisontimes.com.)