Why Oppose a Win-Win Strategy for Creating Jobs and Workforce-Housing?

“Wonderful” and “transformative” is how Rifle City Manager Tommy Klein described the new workforce training center and modular home production facility being developed in his community.

The center will train high school students and graduates in some of the latest digital construction technology; attract good-paying advanced manufacturing jobs to the region; and make it more financially feasible for local communities, hospitals and school districts to build affordable, deed-restricted housing for their employees.

The training center and production facility is being developed as a partnership between the City of Rifle, Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley, and Colorado River BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services). It will produce modular housing units from recycled steel, using a digital construction system.

The center will significantly reduce Habitat’s construction costs, enabling them to produce over 100 units per year, primarily for local Habitat projects. Other units will be sold to Habitat affiliates in neighboring counties as well as communities, school districts, hospitals, and others interested in building affordable, deed-restricted housing for local workers and residents.