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WOOD RIVER WEEKLY
YOUR VOICE IN THE WOOD RIVER VALLEY
Free | June 16 - 29, 2021 | Vol. 2 - No. 12 | woodriverweekly.com
“ Yo u r s u c c e s s a n d h a p p i n e s s l i e i n y o u . ”
SILVER RIVER, SILVER LINING ~Helen Keller
Owner and the architects (L-R) Gary Poole, Rebecca Bundy, Susan Scovell. Photo credit: Wood River Weekly
16 new ‘workforce housing’ units added, investors say more to come
I
By Eric Valentine
t turns out tents in parking lots and showering at the local Y is not the only alternative method for housing a workforce. Actual apartment buildings close to the town center that are all-electric, energy-efficient, and solar paneled, with extra insulation, electric car charging outlets, and battery energy storage are an option, too. What’s more, it doesn’t require tax credits and developers can even turn a profit. Just a few weeks removed from a town square meeting in Ketchum to discuss outside-the-box solutions to the shortage of affordable homes—actually any type of home—for the Valley’s working class, a 16-unit project in Hailey, called Silver River, may be the silver lining to the always challenging development dilemma that is fast approaching catastrophic. The dilemma: how to put a roof over the heads of the people who do things like put roofs over heads. “The pain points discussed at the meeting by the public were that there isn’t enough affordable housing for Ketchum’s workforce and the businesses are at risk of closing due to the lack of employees,”
explained Lisa Enourato, Public Affairs & Administrative Services manager for the City of Ketchum, after that public meetup a few weeks ago. Enter Silver River Place, an apartment complex located at 402 North River Street in Hailey that, in the middle of a pandemic, took 14 months to build and now provides 16 new quality rental apartment homes at “modest market” rates. Property manager for the building, Jon Gilmour, of Sawtooth Properties, has leased up the building to 100% occupancy with a mix of community members whose occupations include: fire chief, social worker, electrician, concrete contractor, waitperson, county employee, sheriff’s officer, property manager, international buying manager, nonprofit employee, financial analyst, accountant, heating technician, and club employees. What’s more, the project was not funded by anything from the holy grail of workforce housing known as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program—a dollar-for-dollar tax credit incentivizing the use of private equity in the development of affordable housing aimed at low-income Americans. It’s to make sure the kind of housing that doesn’t produce
Project manager Ben Parker. Photo credit: Wood River Weekly
Continued WORKFORCE HOUSING Page 5