Colorado ski towns are so expensive that snowplow drivers can't afford homes and have to be put up by their bosses

• Workers in tony Colorado ski towns can no longer afford to live there.
• The state's department of transportation has been offering housing stipends to attract workers.

Some Colorado ski towns have gotten so unaffordable that the people who plow the roads can't afford to live there. With the situation dire, an unlikely developer is stepping in.

Desperate to maintain staff, the Colorado Department of Transportation is planning to spend millions on housing developments to help ensure they have enough nearby people to keep the roads clear during snowy winter months, The Denver Post reported last week. It'll use money earmarked for highway maintenance positions that haven't been filled.

Someone starting in one of those highway jobs makes about $40,000 per year, according to the Post. That is a fraction of the typical household income in some of the communities targeted by the CDOT program. At the end of the day, many people qualified for the jobs don't for the simple reason that they can't afford local housing, per the Post.

While labor is hard to come by, the transportation department is rich with other resources.

The CDOT is donating land and dropping $3 million on a 22-unit affordable housing project in Frisco, a bougie ski town near Breckenridge, where the typical family made $101,871 in 2021, according to the American Community Survey. It's also putting up to $6 million into a complex of up to 16 homes in Fairplay, another ski town about a 40 minute drive southeast of Frisco where the typical income was a more modest $73,000 in 2020, per the US census.

According to the Post, the department has been giving out housing stipends to workers who take jobs, with extra cash offered in high income areas. John Lorme, CDOT's director of maintenance and operations, told the Post that offering housing to workers — with their only cost being property management fees — in lieu of that money makes more sense, in part because it's a single expense versus an ongoing one.

The housing problem isn't limited to state workers. The in-migration from the super rich has been pushing housing costs higher, putting affordable shelter further from reach of all residents with average incomes, The Guardian reported in April. The trend was only exacerbated during the pandemic as remote workers flocked to the state.

Even as the housing market cools, the cost of a typical Colorado home is still hovering around $600,000, according to Redfin. That is more than $150,000 above what a typical home in the state cost in January 2020.

It's a big problem for people that are often needed when the worst conditions strike.

"I found so many people having to live out of their cars just so they could get to their work on time – because if it's snowing, you're expected to be there and open up, but you can't get there," Frisco resident Claire Murphy, 52, told the Guardian.

If the CDOT strategy works, it could become a blueprint for other state agencies seeking affordable housing, Lorme told the Post.