San Luis Valley Housing Coalition: Bringing Abandoned Homes Back to Life
The San Luis Valley is one of the poorest rural regions in Colorado, with a poverty rate estimated around 25 percent and a shortfall of about 1,800 housing units. Many residents live off the grid, often in travel trailers or storage sheds, and community leaders say almost no affordable housing has been built in the 120-mile-long valley since 2000.
The San Luis Valley Housing Coalition answers with restoration rather than new sprawl: it buys and renovates abandoned homes, some uninhabited for decades, and in some cases restores them for the very families who once built them and had to leave. Homecoming, one house at a time.