Emily Niehaus stands next to straw bales that will be used in house walls. Screenshot courtesy of KSL.com.

Many tourism industry workers in Moab in eastern Utah cannot find affordable housing. Some live in dilapidated trailers that are decades old.

However social worker Emily Niehaus created a nonprofit organization — Community Rebuilds — to construct affordable and energy-efficient homes from straw, according to this article and video clip from KSL.com.

Well, not entirely from straw bales.

The three-bedroom homes are framed in wood and covered in mud plaster. The straw bales are an excellent insulator that help keep the homes at a constant temperature no matter the season.

“We build passive solar straw bale homes for qualifying families who receive a low-interest loan through USDA Rural Development,” said Niehaus, MSW.

Interns come from around the world to learn how to build the homes, which contain about 1,000 square feet of living space.

The organization has built three homes since 2010. Tourist guide Nancy Morlock and her boyfriend Eric Boxrud, who bought one of the homes, said they cut their utility bills by 80 percent by moving out of a single-wide trailer and into a straw-walled home.

“We never dreamed that we’d have something of this quality this soon,” Morlock said. “This just gives us a great head start on the rest of our life.”

Cheers to KSL for highlighting how social workers help build sustainable communities.

Nancy Morlock and Eric Boxrud’s new home. Photo courtesy of Community Rebuilds.

Interior of Nancy Morlock and Eric Boxrud’s home. Photo courtesy of Community Rebuilds.