Housing Solutions Initiative

Sections

Often char­ac­ter­ized by the nar­ra­tives of afford­abil­i­ty and sup­ply of sin­gle-fam­i­ly hous­es, hous­ing in the Teton region is com­plex and expan­sive beyond tra­di­tion­al mar­ket views.

Our com­mu­ni­ty hous­ing needs look like build­ing afford­able hous­es for local fam­i­lies, secur­ing afford­able rental rates for year-long val­ley res­i­dents as well as sea­son­al work­ers, remov­ing bar­ri­ers to move up from entry-lev­el to mid-range priced home­own­er­ship, pro­vid­ing liv­ing spaces for chron­i­cal­ly unhoused pop­u­la­tions, ensur­ing tran­si­tion­al hous­ing for fam­i­lies or indi­vid­u­als in need of a safe place to live – and many more.

Facts & Figures

The Cur­rent Hous­ing Land­scape in Teton County

Near­ly half of renters (2,000 res­i­dents) sur­veyed in the Teton Region were forced to move an aver­age of two times over the past three years.

As of 2023, the medi­an sale price for a sin­gle-fam­i­ly home grew near­ly 40% to more than $5.0M.

Over the next 5 years, an esti­mat­ed 2,000 below-mar­ket hous­ing units are need­ed for our work­ing fam­i­lies in Teton County.

Housing Solutions Initiative

Hous­ing Solutions

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.

Hous­ing Dashboard

The Hous­ing Dash­board is a data tool col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly cre­at­ed by com­mu­ni­ty invest­ed part­ners and sup­port­ed by the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Jack­son Hole Hous­ing Solu­tions Ini­tia­tive. This shared data tool will help inform and guide future hous­ing solu­tions for Teton County.

Housing Dashboard

Upcom­ing Events

Nov 20 — Bridg­ing the Cap­i­tal Gap Pan­el Discussion

Event Details:

  • What: Pan­el dis­cus­sion on fund­ing strate­gies for afford­able and work­force housing
  • When: Wednes­day, Novem­ber 20, 2024, 9:30 – 11:30 AM
  • Where: Teton Coun­ty Library, Ord­way Auditorium
  • Who: Pre­sen­ta­tions by Jack­son Teton Coun­ty Hous­ing Depart­ment (JTCHD), Com­mu­ni­ty Hous­ing Trust, Habi­tat for Human­i­ty, Tyler Davis with Keller Williams JH, and Nav­i­gate LLC

Agen­da Highlights:

  • Overview: Nav­i­gate LLC will intro­duce local cap­i­tal gap data and var­i­ous fund­ing strategies.
  • Project Spot­lights: JTCHD, Com­mu­ni­ty Hous­ing Trust, Habi­tat for Human­i­ty, and Tyler Davis will share insights into spe­cif­ic projects, show­cas­ing strate­gic part­ner­ships and tools like LIHTC financ­ing, phil­an­thropic invest­ments, and pub­lic-pri­vate collaborations.
  • Pan­el Dis­cus­sion: A col­lab­o­ra­tive dis­cus­sion on chal­lenges, suc­cess­es, and future opportunities.

In June 2024, the Hous­ing Dash­board was launched as a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort among com­mu­ni­ty-focused part­ners, sup­port­ed by the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Jack­son Hole’s Hous­ing Solu­tions Ini­tia­tive. This Dash­board, part of the Teton Com­mu­ni­ty Well­be­ing Dash­board facil­i­tat­ed and stew­ard­ed by Lega­cy­Works Group, serves as a vital resource for under­stand­ing inter­con­nect­ed hous­ing and com­mu­ni­ty needs. Devel­oped with input from 17 part­ner orga­ni­za­tions, the Hous­ing Dash­board high­lights crit­i­cal data focus areas, includ­ing the cap­i­tal gap in build­ing afford­able hous­ing — a key pri­or­i­ty iden­ti­fied through this process.

The ​“Bridg­ing the Cap­i­tal Gap” Pan­el Dis­cus­sion aims to shine a light on the chal­lenges of financ­ing afford­able hous­ing and to explore inno­v­a­tive fund­ing strate­gies, many of which rely on strate­gic part­ner­ships. Rec­og­niz­ing that no sin­gle sec­tor can solve these com­plex hous­ing chal­lenges alone, the event will fea­ture non-prof­it, for-prof­it and our joint Hous­ing Depart­ment, each bring­ing unique per­spec­tives, fund­ing tools, and col­lab­o­ra­tive opportunities.

This event under­scores the Com­mu­ni­ty Foundation’s role in con­ven­ing part­ners and fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion to address Teton County’s hous­ing challenges.

For more infor­ma­tion, contact:
Wendy Mar­tinez, Direc­tor of Hous­ing Solutions
wmartinez@​cfjacksonhole.​org

Next Steps

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion’s new­ly hired Direc­tor, Hous­ing Ini­tia­tives will be respon­si­ble for: 

  • Estab­lish­ing and sup­port­ing the Hous­ing Col­lec­tive (a diverse rep­re­sen­ta­tion of com­mu­ni­ty stakeholders) 
  • Under­stand­ing and main­tain­ing region­al hous­ing data 
  • Devel­op­ing and imple­ment­ing a col­lec­tive impact strategy 
  • Build­ing sup­port for the over­ar­ch­ing region­al hous­ing initiative