Desert Dream - Olivia Sun - Visual Journalist

Desert Dream

The San Luis Valley, a vast desert basin of southern Colorado, is short about 1,800 housing units. The sparsely-populated region is one of the poorest rural areas of the state, with a poverty rate estimated around 25%. Many live off the grid without electricity or running water, often in travel trailers or storage sheds. Community leaders say the 120 mile-long valley has had no affordable housing built since 2000.

In recent years, residents who grew up in the Valley have returned to their childhood homes — some uninhabited for decades — due to rising living costs elsewhere in the country. With the help of the San Luis Valley Housing Coalition, a nonprofit that buys and renovates abandoned homes in the desert valley, they hope to rescue the original homes their families built. In some cases, the homes will be restored for the people who originally abandoned them after upkeep became too expensive.

Left: A home is seen in Costilla County near Garcia, CO. 30% of homes in the Valley are abandoned, compared with 10% of abandoned homes statewide.

Growing up, Mark Manzanares lived an adobe brick house built by his father and uncle in the 1930s. His family abandoned it in the late 90s to find livelihood and job opportunities elsewhere in the west. In 2019, Manzanares and his mother, Aurora, returned to the home, hoping to restore it back to safe conditions. “We want to finish this project and be an inspiration to other people who have the same idea, the same dream, and the same need, so that they won’t be afraid to do it,” said Mark Manzanares. “Every day we work on it.”

Aurora Gonzales, 84, stands in the backyard of the home she shares with her son, Mark Manzanares. After returning to the valley, Manzanares and Gonzales lived in a small camper and shed in the backyard for a year until they could clean out the house. The home was abandoned for about 20 years. Manzanares and Gonzales, who sometimes can barely afford food, say a typical dinner consists of beans, pork, rice, and salad.

Manzanares shows a document with a model of a leach bed, or septic drain field, that he plans to have engineered as required by Conejos County code. Based on soil tests, Manzanares must build a special leach field for the home but has yet to gather enough funds to hire a local contractor.

Left: Abandoned buildings on Main St. of Antonito, pop. 647. About 23% of the population of Conejos County live below the poverty line.

Maria Bornn, who had previously been homeless in California, moved back into her family’s abandoned home in 2021. When she arrived, it was in poor condition, ridden with black mold, insects, and sunken-in floors.

“It took a lot of sacrifice to clean,” Bornn said. “You have to have the right attitude and the right mindset.” The Energy Resource Center helped install a new heating system, water heater, refrigerator, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and wall insulation. Bornn, in her seventies, says there’s still a long way to go. “You learn how to live with what you’ve got.”

A corner of Bornn’s home in San Luis. Many people living in Costilla, Conejos and Saguache counties still live off the grid without electricity or running water.

The San Luis Valley Housing Coalition aims to purchase Boyd Elementary, a closed, 80-year-old school building in Alamosa, for $2.1 million for regional affordable housing. Depending on grant funding, units at Boyd will cost $650 monthly for a one-bedroom, $775 for a two-bedroom, and $850 for a three-bedroom.

Classrooms will be converted to studios and apartments with up to three bedrooms each.

The goal is to create housing that’s priced for people earning no more than 60% of the area median income. Developers tend to favor communities where higher-priced housing can make profits, but opportunities in the Valley continue to gradually lure builders.