Boulder High Schoolers Are Powering The City’s Affordable Housing Push

A school district that utilizes a city-owned modular housing factory has stepped to the vanguard of an affordable housing push in Boulder, one of Colorado’s most unaffordable cities. 

The initiative, a three-way partnership among the city government, the school district, and the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate, is a potential replicable model for expanding the supply of affordable housing while engaging and recruiting more young people into careers in construction and homebuilding. 

BoulderMOD, a 31,375-square-foot modular housing factory completed last year, hosts a unique high school training program that prepares students for construction careers while they simultaneously rebuild their community. 

The city of Boulder built the facility for $13 million, drawing on federal, state, and private foundation grants and loans. Flatirons Habitat for Humanity leases the facility from the school district at no cost and operates it alongside staff and student apprentices.

By many metrics, the factory is a success for the city, but its origin story begins with a Boulder-area tragedy. In 2013, flooding destroyed the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park, a nearly 70-unit community that served as one of the few affordable housing options in the region. 

Boulder annexed the Ponderosa property six years later and worked alongside Habitat for Humanity to develop the concept for BoulderMOD, which is located on land owned by the Boulder Valley School District. The facility will initially rebuild the Ponderosa community and will later deliver homes to other parts of the region. 

The factory transforms the capability of the local Habitat affiliate, Flatirons Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Dan McColley told The Builder’s Daily. Up to that point, Habitat had built only three to four homes per year. Once BoulderMOD reaches full capacity, the affiliate could deliver up to 50 homes annually. 

“Our construction timeline is being changed from nine to 12 months to 12 to 14 weeks. So it’s just simply a game-changer for how Flatirons Habitat for Humanity does and is going to do business,” McColley said.

The BuilderMOD factory produces three-bedroom duplex units. (Photo courtesy of City of Boulder)

According to McColley, Flatirons Habitat for Humanity is the only Habitat affiliate that has access to its own modular factory. His organization expects to see 20% cost savings per unit once the factory is fully operational. 

All houses in Ponderosa will be 1,150-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom duplexes. The first units were delivered to the community in November and December, and Habitat is already planning to build housing in several other sites throughout the region. 

The homes will provide affordable ownership options in a city with a median home price of about $1 million. In the traditional Habitat model, houses are sold based on a family’s income rather than market value, and the property is priced so that the family’s mortgage stays at or below 30% of their monthly income. 

The role that students play

BoulderMOD accommodates 18 high school students in the morning and another 18 students in the afternoon. The factory and associated student training program are unique because they are among the few facilities of their kind in the nation built directly on school property. It also allows students to work on real homes with real community impact. 

The factory is located next to the school district’s Apex building, which houses technical training programs. Apex students who work in BoulderMOD can easily walk to the facility, eliminating the need for transportation to and from the building site. 

Student apprentices, comprising juniors and seniors, come to the factory for several hours a day, where, in addition to receiving real-world training in homebuilding and construction, they also play a major role in building the homes. 

“They have blown our socks off,” McColley said. “They come in, and they’re really motivated. It is clear that they love what they’re doing, because they’re learning building trades on a real house, not on a dog house or a bird house. The part of my interactions with the students that surprises me every day is that they really understand the impact that they are having on their community. They get that they are building houses for folks who otherwise would never be able to buy their own home. 

McColley knows of multiple BoulderMOD students who received full-time job offers in construction upon graduation. At a time when the construction industry is short more than 700,000 workers, getting more young people into the trades is crucial for the homebuilding industry. 

Recruiting new workers in construction could also become more difficult due to a recent federal crackdown on immigration, as immigrant workers make up a disproportionate share of the construction workforce. A recent Harvard JCHS study found that immigrants accounted for 50% or more of construction trades workers in some high-growth markets, including Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. 

High school students learn valuable trades skills in the BuilderMOD factory. (Photo courtesy of City of Boulder)

Rob Price, Assistant Superintendent of Operational Services at Boulder Valley School District, says that students learn a variety of skills at BuilderMOD, including how to lead a team. 

“They’re learning how to read blueprints. They’re going to be framing drywall, doing electrical, plumbing, HVAC work, and painting, everything that’s associated with building a house. A lot of times, one of the students is put in charge where they’re the supervisor of the day. So now they’re starting to lead people and figuring out, what does it take to get people to do what you need them to do?” Price said. 

The homes built at BoulderMOD are net-zero, energy-efficient, and deliver long-term cost savings for homeowners. Avi Bar, Chief Revenue Officer at Alpen High Performance Products, which supplies energy-efficient windows for homes, says the student trainees have shown a remarkable interest in the work. 

“They’re not distracted. They were genuinely involved and interested and really enthused by what they were learning and what they were doing,” he explained, pointing out the importance of having students “appreciate building materials that are taken for granted.” 

For students, hands-on training in building real homes for families is an excellent lesson in the value of precision and quality control. All of the homes in the BoulderMOD factory are built with a one-eighth-inch tolerance. If any of the work is off by more than an eighth of an inch, the students must come back and redo the process until it meets the quality standards. 

“From a quality control perspective, there’s no better training than if you mess something up and you have to redo it,” Price explained. 

So far, BoulderMOD has been a winning proposition for all parties involved. The city of Boulder can offer more affordable homeownership opportunities for residents for years to come; Flatirons Habitat for Humanity can expand its production capabilities; and local students now have access to a world-class training program that can lead to high-paying jobs. 

“To me, this is the future of education,” Price said. “How do we solve these problems and actually come up with solutions and let [students] be part of it. I can’t think of a better learning environment that we can provide.”