When leadership at Harrison School District 2 in Colorado Springs, Colorado toured a tiny home village for young people in poverty created by local nonprofit We Fortify, they left feeling inspired.
“About a week after the tour, they called and asked if we would build two villages for them on school property,” We Fortify founder and CEO Shelley Jensen told Good Good Good.
We Fortify offers two kinds of social housing structures: Elevate Villages, which offer affordable housing and life skills, therapy, and job training programming for young people ages 18-25; and Noble Villages, which offer dignified and affordable housing for service professionals like teachers, nurses, firefighters, and more.
So, earlier this month, Harrison School District 2 and We Fortify announced the building of two tiny home communities on the Mountain Vista Community School campus.
The first is “Wendy’s Village,” a community of 40 units specifically reserved for educators. Rent is $800 a month, homes are 352 square feet in size, and the whole neighborhood will sit on the school’s soccer field, which takes up just less than an acre.
Each home is powered by electric energy and includes a full kitchen and bathroom, a living room, and a bedroom. A central community center will also include a galley kitchen, event space, and raised garden beds.
The other development is “Prospect Village,” and will be reserved for young adults ages 18-25. Rent here is $600 a month and is a smaller community of 18 units, placed on the school’s basketball courts.
The idea behind Prospect Village is to serve as a long-term transitional housing option, offering educational programming and job opportunities to young people emerging from poverty.
“With every development we build, we learn and get better — we add to our tool belt of best practices,” Jensen said. “If we can do that and help house the employees who provide our infrastructure services, it's a win-win.”
While We Fortify has specialized in youth housing before, the teacher housing community is a new development to explore.
“It's the first of its kind in Colorado Springs, and I believe the first ‘cottage court’ design in Colorado,” Jensen said. “We believe in smaller developments that really lean into the neighborhoods they are in, using homes that complement the current development.”
Other similar initiatives have been in the works in other parts of the country. In Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools offers apartments at below-market rent, homeownership opportunities for teachers, and plans to build its own housing development.
With stagnant wages, rising housing costs, and a decline in educators nationwide, this kind of offering aims to keep teachers where they actually want to be.
“There is absolutely a systemic crisis, so let’s get going,” Jensen said. “[Teacher housing] is one solution to a very big problem that we cannot control, nor wish to. That is not in our lane. What is in our lane is our ability to provide beautiful, dignified housing in a human-focused way that allows the teachers to teach and live in a state that they want to live in.”
On top of this, she added, it “allows the school district to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers to this state so that they can provide the quality of education they desire to their constituents.”
According to Jensen, 75% of teachers surveyed in Harrison District 2 said they wanted to stay in the district and “wanted to live in this village.”
Dr. Wendy Birhanzel, the superintendent of the district, said the idea is a “bold vision” that will be turned “into reality” with the help of the school’s partnership with We Fortify and other donors.
“This project reflects our shared commitment to supporting educators and strengthening the future of our schools and neighborhoods,” Dr. Birhanzel said in a statement, reported by KKTV 11 News.
Right now, the district is working with We Fortify to collect funding for both complexes. Wendy’s Village will be entirely funded through private, public, corporate, and foundation donations, including a recent donation from ENT Credit Union.
Jensen told Good Good Good that nearly $1 million has been raised thus far, though another $5 million is needed to fully realize the project. A model home will also soon be prepped for visitors.
“We have an NGU — never give up — attitude,” Jensen said. “They can expect that we will get these communities built.”
Once they are completed, Jensen added, she hopes Wendy’s Village can serve as a blueprint for other communities looking to build teacher housing.
“There isn't a lot of evidence out there right now with regard to teacher housing. It would be great if Wendy’s Village could be a case study,” Jensen said. “I know and understand [that’s] how Dr. Birhanzel, the superintendent, intends to use it. I believe in her and her vision.”
Header image courtesy of We Fortify
