1. Q: What is Home+Sted?
Home+Sted is the townhome community for employee housing to be built and owned by PCJH on the undeveloped site adjacent to the church parking lot at the corner of South Park Loop Road and High Country Drive For several years, the high cost and lack of available housing in Teton County have made it exceedingly difficult to recruit and retain great staff, jeopardizing our future ministry of service to members, congregation and the community. We have been fortunate that generous members have provided some staff housing including homes for our pastors, but we need to control future housing opportunities in order to continue to be a vibrant church Due to the foresight of church leaders who purchased our campus in the late 90’s, we are fortunate to own three undeveloped acres where we propose to build. Owning land is a huge blessing for us in today’s high cost environment. Trusting God to lead us, a new generation of church leaders is stepping up to create Home+Sted
2. Q: Have we looked at all possible alternatives such as buying existing properties, awarding special housing subsidies or selling our property to a developer and leasing back units?
Yes We formed a Housing Task Force five+ years ago to study how the Church could resolve its staff housing dilemma and these members have diligently explored and studied all possible options. They devoted countless hours and their special talents to working closely with architects, planners, engineers and contractors At the end of this lengthy and thoughtful process, developing a small workforce housing community on our own property to include 21 townhomes and one small building was determined the best option
3. Q: What stage are the plans in now?
The Housing Task Force with Session approval moved forward with hiring architects and engineers to develop plans for this community that were submitted to the Town of Jackson on November 13, 2023 Since securing development rights is time consuming and costly, the Task Force felt it prudent to seek approval for all 21 units simultaneously although we don’t expect to build all 21 concurrently. We received a 5-0 unanimous vote of approval from Town Council on July 15, 2024. Groundbreaking tentatively is set for Spring 2025 for the first 10 homes plus a small fellowship cabin depending upon funds available at that time
4. Q: Should the Church be in the housing development business? Should we be purchasing 10 units in the Valley versus building a project?
At this point Session and other Church leaders have determined that building and retaining ownership and management of Home+Sted is the best course of action Home+Sted will be a separate LLC with its own board of directors We plan to hire professional contractors to oversee construction and development and ultimately management so that Church staff can focus on ministerial responsibilities We are talking with other churches and non-profit organizations in the Valley as well as the Housing Trust to consider broader options that allow us to continue to control the property. For example, we could lease some of the homes to other churches or non-profits for a period of time before our staff needs them >
5. Q: Who will make the project?
Session will make all important decisions on how we proceed with Home+Sted with guidance from the Housing Team Church leaders will call a special congregational meeting and anticipate approvals from the majority of church members. The Presbytery has indicated favorable support for this creative solution to meet our employee housing needs
6. Q: What has been the staff response to this plan?
Staff members are extremely grateful and excited about this plan Most of them have spent significant amounts of time seeking housing and have endured enormous stress and frustration in the process. In addition, we have lost staff because of housing issues. Importantly, Home+Sted will free Senior staff and Session leaders from having to devote considerable time and resources to this challenge
Response from other non-profit organizations and their staffs has been resounding and they have saluted Church leadership for stepping forward to support our staff and overcome this challenge.
7. Q: What is the cost and how is this housing being funded?
We have established a Home+Sted Capital Campaign with support from Horizons Stewardship (https://wwwhorizonsnet/), our fundraising consultant, to raise funds for this community with a goal of $115 million This will fund the first group of townhomes plus land development and infrastructure such as utilities for the entire community. We are hoping to build 10 townhomes in the first phase but the number will be adjusted to fit fundraising and costs as
e considering bridge financing in order to meet this urgent housing need, providing cash flow to fund construction as pledge payments are received As of August 23, 2024 more than 50% of the goal, or $5.8 million has been pledged to the campaign.
8. Q: Is the Home+Sted campaign separate from our Annual Giving to the Church?
Yes, we ask that you prayerfully consider pledging to this special campaign over and above your annual support for PCJH Funds for the Home+Sted campaign can be a several year commitment
9. Q: Are we looking at how we will fund future maintenance and repairs?
Yes, these costs are being analyzed by the Housing Task Force as part of the Home+Sted budget Rental income from tenants will provide the funding for operations, maintenance and replacement of items such as flooring and appliances
10. Q: How will homes be allocated to staff?
The Personnel committee will develop policies to determine how to allocate housing to employees. Because housing has been such a critical issue for staffing the church, many policies have already been developed, utilizing guidelines from other organizations as a starting point Governing policies for the separate LLC will likewise be developed and approved by the Session
11. Q: How do these homes compare to other non-profit housing in the Valley?
The PCJH Housing Task Force has set its sights on producing homes that staff can be proud to live in. Our architects, led by Jackson Hole native Mark Turner, have designed a pocket community of >
homes with front porches facing a central commons. Units will range from one bedroom to four bedrooms as we are assuming we will have family residents Most are two bedrooms The sizes are comparable to other new workforce housing projects in the area
12. Q: Will the church have to continue subsidizing the rent that staff pays to live at Home+Sted, or any other costs, after the building is completed?
Projections indicate that the amount of subsidy being paid now by the church will remain the same
13. Q: Why don’t the homes have garages? Jackson Hole weather would seem to require them as a necessity.
This was not an easy decision The Housing Task Force and the architectural team struggled with how to accommodate garages. Ultimately they decided against garages due to excessive costs. They felt getting the homes built was more important than trying to raise significantly more funds to build garages
14. Q: Do we really need an additional fellowship cabin?
This would be ideal for Church and community uses if funding allows us to build it We anticipate locating the fellowship cabin at the western edge of the site. It will be frame construction with rustic finishes and will accommodate a dozen persons or so for small groups or study purposes The cabin is an important part of building Christian community and completes the overall architectural design of the project
15. Q: What are the implications of Home+Sted on our tax status?
We do not anticipate any changes in our campus tax status based on precedence from other similar church projects
16. Q: What happens if we don’t need all of the townhomes for staff?
We will consider a variety of options such as using the homes for our local mission partners as well as leasing some to other churches or non-profit organizations who face similar housing challenges for their staffs Workforce housing units require that at least one occupant is employed for at least 32 hours per week year-round in Teton County
17. Q: How is the church able to move forward on its own?
PCJH is blessed with a deep reservoir of professional talent in almost every aspect of property development, construction and management. These Home+Sted leaders have donated their time, expertise and resources to move this project forward through design, planning, engineering, construction viability and costs, town planning approvals, and fundraising over the past several years At the same time other volunteers have given their time and expertise to multiple aspects of church involvement and support. We estimate more than 5,000 volunteer hours have been given to bring Home+Sted to its current status as viable future employee housing.