Higher Purpose Homes, a Durango-based housing contractor, was one of 14 businesses awarded an Innovative Housing Incentive Program grant in the Polis administration’s latest round of grant giving.
The IHIP grant is meant to increase the availability of attainable housing across Colorado by supporting the development of the off-site construction industry.
Higher Purpose Homes was approved for up to $590,000 for the construction of a projected 95 units over three years, according to a news release from Gov. Jared Polis’ office.
It was estimated that 30 of those units would be deed-restricted and affordable.
The grant reimburses Higher Purpose Homes 20% of its costs, but the business must spend the money before it is able to receive the reimbursement.
“It's not just free money,” said Ethan Deffenbaugh, co-owner of Higher Purpose Homes.
Higher Purpose Homes constructs floor, wall and roof panels at an off-site location before delivering them to the build site and assembling them with a crane. The technique significantly reduces the time and waste involved with housing construction.
“By doing it in indoors, we reduce waste. We do it more efficiently, which then lowers the cost of the end product,” Deffenbaugh said.
He said his business partner, Nick Lemmer, developed a cut station that uses as much of the wood stock as possible.
Deffenbaugh said build sites normally have dumpsters filled to the brim with scraps of material that must be removed via truck at the end of each day, but when his company framed a 2,000-square-foot house, it was finished with a little more than a wheelbarrow’s worth of waste.
For years, Durango and La Plata County have faced a shortage of attainable housing.
By the end of 2024, the median price of homes in Durango city limits was $932,000, a far cry from affordable for the families and individuals that make up the majority of the town’s workforce.
Deffenbaugh said he and Lemmer recognize the problem.
“We are doing this to help increase affordable housing, because we are members of this community, and we see the community hurting,” Deffenbaugh said.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
