Blaine County Housing Authority board members voted unanimously on April 10 to open up one of the agency’s Sun Valley condos to residents of higher income.
Wednesday’s decision was intended to help fill a gap in Wood River Valley housing supply for residents in the “missing middle,” meaning people with middle to high income who can’t afford to buy a home in the valley but make too much money to be eligible for income-restricted housing. These residents fall under an income category the BCHA calls “Category L,” which does not have an income maximum but requires residents to live and work full-time in Blaine County.
Board members voted on April 10 to shift the designation for a unit in Sun Valley’s Elkhorn Village condo complex to Category L, a change from the unit’s previous housing authority designation as Category 4.
Category 4 is designed for people who make 80%-100% of the area median income. The one-person household AMI is currently $58,750.
Ketchum Housing Director Carissa Connelly said the BCHA has plenty of housing in stock for Category 4 residents and people in Category 5—a designation for residents making 100%-120% of area median income—but does not have enough housing options for Category L.
“I know of an architect who lives in his office, I know of a lawyer who goes to the Hunger Coalition [for food] because his rent is too high,” she said, describing examples of valley residents who could be helped by more Category L housing.
BCHA manages roughly 60 units for Category 4 housing and 15 for Category 5 housing. It has roughly 10 units in Category 2 housing. The total number of Category 6 and Category L units is around 10. About half the BCHA stock is Category 4 housing, Connelly said.
Rent for Category L units is higher than any other unit, producing more income the BCHA can use to acquire additional housing.
“It’s a category that is our least-served category and it’s going to give us a chunk of money that’s going to be significantly more than if we [made it] a Category 5 or a 6,” BCHA Chair Keith Perry said. “And having that money will allow us to generate more units.”
Sarah Seppa, BCHA vice chair at large, said it’s important to accommodate the higher ends of the income spectrum because even those members of the community are struggling to find housing.
“[It’s important] to have some inventory for higher level working professionals, like architects and health care workers,” she said. “It can’t just be for the blue collar workers—it also has to span up into a little bit of higher incomes because even people making over $100,000 a year can’t afford an $800,000 house [in this community].”
Connelly also said on Wednesday that 15 parties had applied to a new home-ownership and preservation program Ketchum launched in January, and more have expressed interest in the three months the program has been in service.
Prospective homeowners accepted to the program can receive cash worth 15%-30% of a home’s value in exchange for placing a deed restriction on the property, the Express previously reported. 
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In considering the situation in which the Wood River Valley has itself as far as housing a labor force, one might ask themselves given the isolation of Sun Valley from a nearby housed labor pool, would Walt Disney ever have built Disneyland or a major resort in the middle of the Idaho Desert? Also, who would ever believe that a labor force could be housed in anything but apartments and even those whose rent is subsidized by the taxpayer or employer or made possible by an large increase in wages and the prices that homeowners and tourists pay for services. To believe that home ownership for the labor force is possible on a large scale is to believe in some of the fantacies of Walt Disney! People, since the Sun Valley Resort will not disappear this is going to take a lONG time to sort itself out and the hope lies not in quasi goverment solutions but organizations like the Wood River Community Housing Trust and private enterprise.
Las Vegas was built isolated from a labor pool, in the middle of a desert.
population LV-665,811
population LV Metro Area-over 2 million.
population Hailey 2075-25,000
Wasn’t the whole point of Sun Valley to be a place for the wealthy to play during the depression away from the kind of people Wes doesn’t think should live here. Wes in pining for the good old days.
“He was almost ready to give up and go home. It was 1935, and for a few weeks, Count Felix Schaffgotsch of Austria had been on a mission to find a hidden gem tucked into the western reaches of the United States. He wanted to find the perfect untapped area in which to build a ski resort the likes of which no one had ever seen.”
Other than Salt Lake City what urban area with room for work force homeownership is an hour away from a ski resort.
Why Las Vegas is a apples and oranges comparison and many if not all major ski resorts are struggling with the samr housing problem for workers:
Why Las Vegas is an apples and oranges comparison and many or most major ski resorts are struggling with the same housing for workers problem:
"More than 2.3 million people now live in the Las Vegas Valley — a sprawling, still-growing metropolis where homebuilders, commercial developers and others have pushed the boundaries of where people live and work farther and farther out.
"There’s never been a strong sense of community here,” said Fielden, founder of Henderson-based RAFI Architecture and Design. “There’s always been A STRONG SENSE OF DEVELOPMENT, A STRONG SENSE OF GROWTH, A STRONG SENSE OF EXPANSION. (my emphasis)"” Las Vegas Register-Journal 3/4/22 Surely, cheap land for development has a lot to do with it also.
Yes, along with the mafia, The Sands and Sinatra.
*Elvis
That said, why isn't the Resort @ River Run? After all, a railroad ran through it....
Housed Labor Pool SV/1935
The estimated population of Hailey in 1935, at the creation of SV was 973-1,443.
The Chinese underground must have been in full swing to buttress that statistic.
Idaho
Chinese residents 1870 - 4`000
Chinese residents 1910 - 859
wiki
@Wes - Respectfully, though not a desert, Walt built Disneyworld in the middle of a Florida swamp. I was there and opposed it (also). My daughter's business is now a part of it, and my understanding is that housing is not a part of show. I can vouch personally that during morning and afternoon rush hours, all six lanes of I-5 are blocked for hours. Not to worry, Disney employees have air-conditioned vehicles.
You got to be kidding me: "“I know of an architect who lives in his office, I know of a lawyer who goes to the Hunger Coalition [for food] because his rent is too high". Who cares? We don't need more architects and lawyers. We need teachers and doctors.
Who cares? People on the street care.
Here's this. In the 70's lawyers worked as bartenders, architects banded together and worked out of small houses, some worked as bartenders. I have zero sympathy for any people who move here seeking their pot of gold and being subsidized for housing. Teacher, doctors, nurses, fire men/woman had it a bit better, but housing and the cost of living were a lot less, in a pinch you could work for the "Company".
Now living in the valley is untenable for most, either your a trust funder, always present, retirees or hedge fund manager, or a uber wealthy person.
Now all these vital people, characterized as "essential occupations that keep a community functioning", aren't moving here because it's to expensive, there' no future here, regardless of any opportunity's. Construction, landscaping, house keeping are the new opportunity's, you don't see a lot of retail anymore.
Now, for Ketchum to exist, everything has to be subsidized, this isn't sustainable.
Perry my comment about " hedge fund manager", will p**s you off, as well it should, but your dedication/tenacity in exposing the sleazy workings of local government gets my applause.
For the record, I worked at a hedge fund for 15 years out of the 40 years I’ve been working. I haven’t worked in finance in over four years. My work history is all out there on LinkedIn. I hope you would find what I’ve been doing in the past four years more interesting. You can check it out at BOMA.ngo and MITS.Capital. I’d love your feedback as to whether these are acceptable occupations for a Ketchum resident. Thanks.
....did you ever tend bar?
@Perry Boyle, indeed you have an interesting occupation, probably to interesting to be boasting about it here.
@PB - F.L. Wright believed "Less is more." So do I ....
Making housing about class is not that helpful. We struggle to house the essential occupations that keep a community functioning. We don't need income-capped housing. We need the kind of housing that ensures we have enough teachers, first responders, and healthcare workers to sustain us.
Your kind of picky aren`t you? ( Careful Perry, your true colors are showing).
I don't think we need any more architects and lawyers--countywide.
....developers and relators?
LOL - I maybe wouldn't tire of "relators"....
Amen! It seems that these programs are always promoted under the guize of helping lower income people and then they end up being a middle class entitlement. This happens from federal programs down to the local level. Has anybody ever considered that if one cannot afford to live here they should not and let the people who can, and they will, figure out how get the services that they need?
Kind of like, celebrate and embrace the American class structure of haves and have-nots? Sink -or-swim.....do or die...I got mine mantra?
So much of the talk about "haves and have not" is simply the promotion of class warfare brought on by envy. That is too bad since studies prove that people so often do not remain "haves" or "have nots for long" in our country for long. That is, there is really no "class" as historically been the case in other countries. Wealth is often squandered and the US provides so many opportunities for people to lift themselves. My guess is that many examples could be found in this Valley of people who were have nots for a while in other places, lifted themselves up financially, and now are the haves you seem to abhor!
Money Talks 2023:
66.9% of the total wealth in the US was owned by the top 10% of earners
The lowest 50% of earners only owned 2.5% of the total wealth in the US
The top 1% of households in America represent 26% of the total US wealth
Yes, this is the same 10% that pays 60% of the federal income tax and many of whom create thousands of jobs in the US and come to places like Sun Valley and spend their dollars to support those in the lowest 50% who live and work here. They are the same people who pay large amounts of property taxes to support the schools and infrastructure, donate to build the hospital, fund the Hunger Coalition etc. Since wealth accumulaton in America is not a zero-sum game, it could be argued that since they have more others also have more. Finally, without them espeially people like the Holdings Ketchum, Sun Valley, and Bellevue would be wide spots in the road!
@ Wes Penn, "Finally, without them espeially people like the Holdings Ketchum, Sun Valley, and Bellevue would be wide spots in the road!" Ah the good old days.
Your right, the gentrification by the wealthy, is the new economy, it's adding consistency to the economy, but it's it has it's down side, creating a mono culture of wealthy people who live here part time and other than the taxes they pay have little connection to the communities. The economy of the future is servicing/maintaining these people.
I don`t deny your version of reality. For America to "work" it needs to work for everybody. Status Quo has left to many working families under the wheel. Our current economic system is a failure , for most. In this land of prosperity why is that ordinary people, workers , can`t afford health-care, child-care , basic shelter and food for their kids?
"Our current economic system is a failure , for most. In this land of prosperity why is that ordinary people, workers , can`t afford health-care, child-care , basic shelter and food for their kids?"
@ Badger All of this would change the day people decide to first educate themselves, live responsibly like past generations and within their means, sacifice a little, adopt an other than "I want it now attitude", get a job (if able) and exchange their dollars for the things you mention not their votes for politicians who make them believe that they can get this for free. Millions are doing this now and millions more are banging the door down to come here and give it a try!!!
Steel City
As you have it Americans are uneducated, irresponsible, selfish, lazy, unemployed.
...........and politically naive?
“Has anybody ever considered that if one cannot afford to live here they should not and let the people who can, and they will, figure out how get the services that they need” Downton Abbey revisited.
Who will apply if only teachers who can afford to live here are hired? Same goes for nurses, first responders, EMS and so many more like the tradespeople who are the ones who built, wired, and plumbed your home … where would you live without them.
“Teachers in the SF Bay Area California city of Milpitas cannot afford to live there. The school district has tried to solve the problem by asking students' families to provide rooms for rent in their homes” Make the move back to hiring only single teachers and have them live with the families of their students.
Harrison School District 2 in Colorado Springs is in the planning stages of building 20, 352-square-feet duplexes on an acre parcel at the district's Mountain Vista Community School, according to the Denver Gazette rent will be around $850.
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