Tiny homes in a tiny town: Is this the future of housing?

When Tafadzwa “T” Nemuseso, a traveling nurse from Zimbabwe and Florida, received his first assignment in December 2021 to the Intensive Behavioral Center in Boulder, his search for affordable housing led him to a small-scale residence in an unlikely location.

During Nemuseso’s first week on assignment, he lived in an apartment in Helena. After searching on AirBnb, however, he found a solution in a tiny-home community located in downtown Basin. 

As migration and inflation continue to drive up the cost of housing in Jefferson County — the average listing price of homes in Jefferson County is currently $597,000, according to realtor.com — local officials are looking for affordable housing alternatives with increasing urgency. Basin’s unintentional tiny-home experiment could provide one answer.