The number of people experiencing homelessness vastly exceeds the number of available shelter beds in the state.
Housing
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
A silicon revival in the West
Is the region ready to produce the world’s most advanced technology?
Posted inArticles
Grabbing public land in the name of housing
Have politicians finally found a way to take public land out of the public’s hands?
Posted inArticles
Supreme Court gives cities and towns power to criminalize homelessness
The Oregon case has been closely watched by Western cities and states.
Posted inArticles
When a landslide blocks your commute
The Teton Pass collapse highlights the importance — and growing vulnerability — of mountain roads.
Posted inJune 2024: The Idea of Wilderness
California’s homelessness and climate crises leave unhoused communities vulnerable to floods
Seeking shelter, people are living in flood control channels and other flood-prone places.
Posted inArticles
Denver’s new immigration plan, explained
The new program caps shelter stays for all new immigrants but expands services for 800 asylum seekers.
Posted inArticles
Denver lanza programa de asistencia para solicitantes de asilo
El nuevo programa busca brindar apoyo a 800 recién llegados, pero cortará recursos para los demas.
Posted inArticles
Desert Subdivision: The paradox of naming a development after Edward Abbey
A Moab housing development named for the author of ‘Desert Solitaire’ sparks debate over Abbey’s legacy and growth in a delicate ecosystem.
Posted inMay 2024: A River Returns
Bozeman’s boom depends on immigrants but struggles to support them
One of the nation’s fastest-growing cities relies on a vulnerable population of workers to fuel its economic explosion.
Posted inArticles
Satirizing gentrification in ‘The Curse’
Avant-garde entertainment’s new topic of interest: urban transformation in the American Southwest.
Posted inArticles
What rural homelessness looks like
The lessons learned after spending months embedded with unhoused communities in Oregon.
Posted inArticles
Could building on public land address the housing crisis?
The West has a plethora of land and a shortage of houses. Some are wondering if a solution lies within.
Posted inMarch 2024: Fertile Ground
Can affordable housing for Indigenous communities work?
The question looms large as Denver breaks ground on its first affordable housing project for Indigenous people.
Posted inArticles
Alaska is short on gravel and long on development projects
The state’s North Slope communities need rocks, and they’re hard to come by.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2024: January 2024
Homeowner’s insurance is going up in smoke
A Q&A with California’s former insurance commissioner about coverage in the age of climate change.
Posted inArticles
Stories that made us green with envy in 2023
A roundup of the articles we wish we’d written ourselves this past year.
Posted inArticles
Mountain towns are trying all sorts of solutions to the housing crisis
A new report details the many ways that high-altitude communities are wrestling with ballooning housing costs.
Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023
North Denver’s green space paradox
Will a billion-dollar infrastructure project heal a Colorado community — or displace its residents?
Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023
Sagebrush Sasquatch, irritable elk and spiders that aren’t from Mars
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.