Housing Solutions Initiative

Non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions and pub­lic sec­tor agen­cies have been doing crit­i­cal work in this field for decades. Habi­tat for Human­i­ty of the Greater Teton Area builds and sells hous­ing units (hous­es, town­hous­es, or con­dos), part­ner­ing with home­own­ers through a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized sys­tem of sweat equi­ty, home­own­er­ship edu­ca­tion, and indi­vid­ual com­mit­ment. The Jack­son Hole Com­mu­ni­ty Hous­ing Trust, a not-for-prof­it hous­ing devel­op­er, man­ages rental homes and lever­ages pri­vate phil­an­thropy and pub­lic sub­si­dies to build afford­able homes for crit­i­cal local com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who make less than 120% area medi­an income. The Jackson/​Teton Coun­ty Afford­able Hous­ing Depart­ment uti­lizes pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships to devel­op deed-restrict­ed hous­ing, and man­ages sales, resales, and rentals across its port­fo­lio of local homes. Beyond non­prof­it and pub­lic sec­tor hous­ing efforts, a robust per­cent­age of employ­ers pro­vide employ­ee hous­ing units or stipends to fill gaps in the system.

The lack of afford­able work­force hous­ing con­tin­ues to be the most press­ing issue in Teton Coun­ty. Despite recent record-set­ting afford­able work­force hous­ing pro­duc­tion, address­ing hous­ing needs will require local poli­cies, sub­si­dies, and cre­ative part­ner­ships, to build upon the already sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ments of the town, coun­ty, local orga­ni­za­tions, employ­ers, pri­vate sec­tor, and com­mu­ni­ty (Teton Region Hous­ing Needs Assess­ment 2022). 

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion is launch­ing a Hous­ing Ini­tia­tive to sup­port efforts in this field, aligned with the 2022 – 25 Strate­gic Plan which pri­or­i­tizes tak­ing action on root caus­es of com­mu­ni­ty issues and putting fund­ing to work on com­mu­ni­ty-iden­ti­fied needs. 

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Jack­son Hole is unique­ly posi­tioned to address afford­able work­force hous­ing with a mul­ti-faceted, col­lec­tive impact-based approach that includes con­ven­ing part­ners, col­lab­o­ra­tive resourc­ing, edu­ca­tion, and social impact invest­ing. Unlike most col­lab­o­ra­tions, col­lec­tive impact ini­tia­tives involve a cen­tral­ized infra­struc­ture, a ded­i­cat­ed staff, and a struc­tured process that leads to a com­mon agen­da, shared mea­sure­ment, con­tin­u­ous com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and mutu­al­ly rein­forc­ing activ­i­ties among all par­tic­i­pants (Stan­ford Social Inno­va­tion Review). 

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foundation’s Hous­ing Ini­tia­tive will bring togeth­er a diverse group of voic­es from all sec­tors to cre­ate afford­able hous­ing solu­tions so local, work­ing fam­i­lies can con­tin­ue to call Jack­son home.