From Sears kits to concrete domes, a Wyoming city’s housing bet

Downtown Casper, Wyoming, has two dozen documented Sears, Roebuck and Co. kit homes still standing. These jewel boxes remind us of a bygone era when mail-order innovation met the need for affordable housing. Casper is again reaching for an unconventional building method to fill an affordable housing gap. This time, it’s a dome-shaped structure made of poured concrete. The effort has drawn a $1 million commitment from Wells Fargo, one of the country’s largest banks. Even at nearly 60,000 people, Wyoming’s second-largest city is facing a housing affordability crunch that mirrors what cities nationwide endure, mostly in urban areas. But it’s also a rural challenge. “Our urban is still very rural,” Melissa Noah, Wyoming Housing Network‘s executive director, said in an interview with HousingWire TBD. The project may serve as a model for other Wyoming cities, including Jackson Hole, the resort town and playground for billionaires, addressing affordable housing needs. In Teton County, home to Jackson Hole, the housing need has become such a problem that county commissioners recently took an extreme step. In July, they approved apartments above a new county coroner’s facility in the planni...