When Andrea Sokolowski moved to Ridgway in 2014, she noticed a pattern.

Everyone was talking about how hard it was to find housing.

Five years later, people are still talking about it. Local social media groups are peppered with posts about people trying to find a place, a place that takes dogs, a place big enough for a family, a place affordable enough for someone who doesn’t make a ton of money. People live in Montrose and commute to jobs in Ouray County, while some who work in Telluride use...