Upscale Ketchum considers letting homeless workers stay in tents or RVs on land in city

Ketchum city officials and Blaine County residents are looking for immediate solutions to the housing crisis in the area. One solution they considered was allowing people to stay in tents at city parks.

At a workshop May 28, the mayor and council took comments from several Ketchum residents who had opinions, ideas and stories related to the struggle many Blaine County residents are facing with affordable housing.

“You have left us in the cold until we have come knocking at your doorstep for answers,” said Ketchum resident Reid Stillman.

The housing shortage in Blaine County has been going on for years and has been made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. Some of the biggest contributing factors include wealthier out-of-state individuals buying up property at top dollar, and landlords making drastic rent increases.

Blaine County Housing Authority Executive Director Nathan Harvill has said residents must compete with people coming in from outside the area who can work remotely. These individuals often have more money.

“We have a lot of entry-level jobs and a lot of retail jobs, and a lot of restaurant jobs that are not going to be filled because they cannot find a workforce that will make those positions work,” Harvill said in May.

According to the housing authority, the median purchase price adjusted for inflation for a two-bedroom house increased 43% from 2013 to 2021, a difference of more than $200,000.

The number of rentals available also has decreased. A housing authority survey shows the number of advertisements for two-bedroom rentals decreased more than 8% from 2019 to 2020. Many people who do own housing have chosen to offer living units as vacation rentals on services such as Airbnb instead of long-term rentals for community members.

Several short-term solutions have been discussed, including allowing for temporary tented housing on city-owned lands and allowing RVs as housing in public parking lots.

Mayor Neil Bradshaw has considered one or more “temporary” workforce tent cities. The Idaho Mountain Express reported that Bradshaw said Rotary Park could be used for tents, since it has public restrooms and a YMCA across the street has showers.

“If we can provide facilities where they can shower, where they can go to the bathroom, I really like that idea, because the problem would not be hidden,” said Ketchum resident Krzysztof Gilarowski.

The City Council decided Monday to move away from locating a tenting area at a specific city park, but several council members wanted city staff to explore other locations, Boise State Public Radio reported.

“Let’s keep looking at other places, because we don’t need to push people up into the mountains so we hide it more,” said Michael David, a council member.

About 150 people attended a rally May 22 in Ketchum Town Square to demand action to improve workforce and affordable housing. Gilarowski was an organizer.

Stillman, who took part in the rally, said he grew up in Ketchum and moved back about two years ago. He said he has a good job, works in advertising, and lives in a 500-square-foot loft that was recently sold for around $420,000. Because there are not many long-term rentals available in the area, he said it will be hard to find a place to move.

“When my lease runs up Sept. 1, I honestly have no idea where I’m going,” Stillman said in an interview.

He added: “I have friends who are sleeping in their cars, camping, sleeping on friends’ couches. They have nowhere to go.”

Dee Towner said he had to leave Ketchum and move to Mountain Home to find a place he could afford and accommodate his girlfriend and dog. He said some of his friends have been on waiting lists for low-income housing for years.

“Some people don’t have two years to wait to find a place to live,” Towner said.

Roseana McCauley, a Ketchum resident since 2017, said her living situation was turned upside down when her landlord decided to turn her living space into an Airbnb.

“I am currently displaced. I am moving around to wherever I can find friends to take me in,” McCauley said.

The city of Ketchum is working to get a 56-unit community housing development built. But that project, known as Bluebird Village, could take years.

The planned affordable apartments downtown

As the Idaho Statesman reported previously, tentative plans call for two buildings at Bluebird Village, each with three stories of apartments over one floor of parking, storage, management, amenity and commercial space.

Bluebird will include “deeply affordable” units for people earning 30% to 50% of area median income, “workforce” units for people earning 60% to 70% of the median, and three market-rate units.

The 2020 median household income for a family of four in Blaine County is $78,400, said the developers, GMD Development LLC of Seattle, which is working in partnership with Ketchum Community Development Corp. This means the project will serve households earning between $16,000 and $60,900, depending on unit type and household size.

The more deeply targeted units’ rent are projected to range from $438 to $666 per month for one-bedroom units and $856 for two-bedroom units.

Monthly rent for one- and two-bedroom workforce units will range from $856 to $1,200, and three-bedroom units from $990 to $1,510.

The rents may change based on future median incomes.

Idaho Statesman Business Editor David Staats contributed.

This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 11:03 AM.