By 1930 it’s believed that Cripple Creek, now a small gambling getaway west of Colorado Springs, created 30 millionaires with its bounty of gold. But today, the city is looking for ways to build more affordable housing. Mostly for the people working in the city’s popular casinos.

Like Colorado’s urban centers and lavish ski spots, Cripple Creek is facing a pinch in the housing market. Teller County lacks affordable housing. The town’s local paper, appropriately named the Mountain Jackpot, reported earlier this month many there have complained there are few affordable places for casino workers to call home.

That could change:

“Recently, Cripple Creek city officials have been working to come up with a way to help fix the problem. After some discussion and a number of work sessions, the council has decided to move forward with the process that will change the rules to allow tiny homes to get built inside city limits.”

Council unanimously voted to allow the city attorney to draft an amendment to the development code that allows “e-homes.” And it might not be that much of a change, the Jackpot reported, as early zoning in the city dates back a century.

“Back then, they laid out residential lots that were only 25 feet wide by 100 or 125 feet long. Since then the city has written development code that requires that anything built on a lot sits in 10 feet from the property border. For years this has meant that, in most cases, in order to build a home in Cripple Creek one must own two side by side lots.”

The plan only brought one concern from a council member, and that was that none of the pre-approved designs resembled a log cabin. That aesthetic fits nicely into the history of the town, she said. “Miner shacks” were a common site in the early days when people rushed west in hopes to strike it rich.

Tiny homes have become a popular fix for small towns heavy in service industry that fail to meet the need of its lower-income workers. Last winter, Aspen Skiing Co. put 500 tiny homes on a plot of land for its employees. They rent for $750 per month.

Of course, not all are convinced. Salida is slated to have the nation’s largest tiny home community. Susan Tweit, who lives in the small outdoorsy mountain town, wrote in High Country News that they really aren’t that affordable.

Rod Stambaugh, president of Sprout Tiny Homes, builder of the proposed Salida community, suggests in the Outside story that rental rates would range from $750 a month for the 260-square-foot model to $1,400 for the largest, which boasts an actual bedroom and 493 square feet of space. That is nearly 50 percent higher than what the out-of-town landlord on my block charges for the two-bedroom unit in his historic duplex, which boasts 300 square feet more living space and is walking distance to downtown.

The Cripple Creek plan is in the early stages, so there’s no word on what a tiny home would rent for. Real estate website Trulia puts the casino town’s median rent at $1,200. The average price of a home is $155,000.