ISSUE #22: Liar, Liar, Liar

Bluebird is not Workforce Housing for the "Lifeblood" of the Community

The Troika LIED About Bluebird

The Troika of Bradshaw/Breen/Hamilton jammed Bluebird onto the community with the promise that it was workforce housing for what the Mayor called Ketchum's “lifeblood”: teachers, healthcare workers, and first responders. He wrote a guest editorial about this in the Mountain Express, calling people who opposed Bluebird “prejudiced.”

The Mayor LIED. The smoking gun is the ad for Bluebird in the June 26th edition of the Mountain Express (above).

No “lifeblood” jobs in Ketchum pay that low a wage. Nurses at St Luke’s make more than that. BCSD starting teacher salary is $58,014. The lowest wage at BCSO is $46,660. The lowest-paid person at KFD makes $49,754. That knocks out teachers, healthcare workers, and first responders—the people the Mayor said Bluebird was being built for.

With the 2+ person household income caps, Bluebird discourages two-income couples/families—yet we need more workers in Ketchum. Why did it include anything other than single resident studios if these are the income caps?

It insults our intelligence to call this “workforce” housing. The tenants cannot be required to work as long as they pay their rent. The Troika knows this, so they adopted the Housing Action Plan, which defines a “worker” to include people who don’t…work (see page 7).

Why is Bluebird advertising for tenants? We were told that BCHA has a list of hundreds of people waiting for Bluebird. Another LIE?

Who Was Bluebird Built For?

The Troika knew what the Bluebird income caps would be, and they knew what compensation levels in Ketchum were. Their argument for Bluebird as housing for the “lifeblood” was a lie they used to get this for-profit project by an out-of-state developer built on one of the most valuable pieces of publicly owned land in Ketchum.

If Bluebird is not for the Mayor’s lifeblood of the community, who did The Troika build Bluebird for?

The math indicates that it is for people who don’t want to work a full day but want to live in the center of Ketchum. To live in Bluebird, you only need to work 20 hours a week to qualify. You don’t need to work in Ketchum. Does that sound like housing that is a “solution” to Ketchum’s workforce crises?

The minimum lease term is 12 months. You can get a minimum-wage, part-time job and let your parents support you for a year while you live it up in taxpayer-subsidized housing in the center of Ketchum. Think that won’t happen? It has been true in the first of the Bluebird series, aka Northwood Place.

The Troika adopted a “preference policy” for Bluebird that prioritizes… retirees. The average social security check is about $2,000 monthly, making Bluebird an ideal retirement location. But does Ketchum not have enough retirees?

Greg Dunfield, the owner of Seattle-based GMD, the for-profit developer of Bluebird, stated he does not anticipate families moving into Bluebird. He only included three-bedroom units because they were required for the low-rate loans from the Idaho Housing Finance Authority. That means six adults are in the three-bedroom units, just like a college dorm. But the income cap on that group is $74k.

How do you qualify six adults to live in Bluebird? You can get a job delivering pizza for $20/hour. Do it 20 hours a week. But that means you make $20,000 grand a year, so not all six of you can work. Maybe you “job share” and each works only 10 hours a week and plays the rest of the time?

The Comprehensive Plan charges The Troika with attracting families to Ketchum. I think we can give them an F on that key performance indicator.

The Troika Is Remaking Ketchum— Not In a Good Way

I find it fascinating that the Mayor pushed Bluebird around the same time he was privately emailing the Marriott developers not to worry about local opposition (3,000 people signed the petition against it)—he would make sure their six-story hotel at the town entrance would get approved.

During public meetings, Utah-based PEG Group, the Marriott developer, said they would probably staff the hotel with people from out of state, given Ketchum’s workforce shortage. The Troika gave PEG every zoning waiver they requested but did nothing about upping Marriott’s obligation to house the low-wage employees it would import to Ketchum. Meanwhile, The Troika pushed Bluebird—ideal housing for low-waged, non-local hotel workers.

Bluebird is part of the Troika’s program to replace middle-class locals with low-paid workers for large-scale out-of-state tourism companies—while getting the locals to pay for it! Need land?—we will give it away. Need some cash?—that’s what the LOT tax and “in lieu of” fees are for. Need zoning code relief?—no problem, we will let the developer draft the language they want.

This is corporate welfare.

Bluebird’s income caps encourage businesses to depress wages so their employees can be housed at public expense. If you think businesses don’t do that, look no further than Sun Valley Co. It has an employee web page that tells them how to apply for taxpayer-subsidized housing. Even Conrad Bros, who built Bluebird, has its employees applying for Bluebird.

A Better Bluebird Than Bluebird

One of our readers sent me the idea below. It is intriguing. Given that it originates from an “essential worker,” who needs housing for his family, it has credibility.

I am wondering if the federal funding can be returned so that the Bluebird can be taken over and run under the same financial model as the Washington Parking lot proposal.  Basically allowing the building to be used as true workforce housing as you have mentioned where preference can be given to locals based on financial income.  

If this could happen, my suggestion would be to reduce the quantity of residential units in Bluebird to say 25.  This helps better situate the available parking spaces provided.  The residential unit quantity reduction would result in larger, multi bedroom units which in turn results in families having the opportunity to live in Ketchum.  I agree that more families and younger people in general are needed here.  I would also suggest that each residential unit have its own dedicated storage area.  This area could be used for skis, bikes, kayaks, kids toys, seasonal clothing, etc.  Having lived in Park City this is an issue that NIMBYs have, seeing affordable housing with "clutter" outside on decks and balconies. Storage is a key component to affordable housing in my opinion.  The storage areas could also have electricity for a deep freezer.  If you need to live in affordable housing, you are not going to be shopping locally.  A deep freezer allows for the "Costco runs" that so many of us working class folks rely on.  My point being that time needs to be spent understanding the true needs of locals that are looking for affordable housing options and how they will use the affordable housing.  

I have talked to locals and I myself struggle financially to make ends meet here.  I know many folks have storage units in Twin Falls because local storage units here are hard to come by and expensive.  I know families rely on Costco runs as the grocery prices here are so expensive.  My personal take on city council is that they are out of touch with the locals who they are attempting to provide housing for.  I feel like they have an image of people moving in, not needing a car, walking and shopping locally.  I hate to break it to them, but if you can't afford to live in Ketchum, you can't afford to shop in Ketchum.  

As my current employment is in local government, I can also say that from my experience the goal for cities is always the quantity of affordable housing.  My suggestion is to focus on the quality of housing that suits the desired need and not focus on quantity.  

It would be nice to see Bluebird turned around as a showcase and model for a successful affordable housing program.  

I hope someone in Ketchum City Hall reads that. KURA, too. I’ll send this blog in as a public comment. The point on the affordability of local grocery stores goes directly to The Troika’s illogical assertions that putting low-income housing in the commercial core creates “vibrancy” and that the people who move in won’t need cars.

The Community Plans; The Troika Laughs

How does Bluebird achieve the goals of Ketchum’s Comprehensive Plan? How does it solve our workforce crisis? How does it bring families into Ketchum? How does this strengthen our community against the boom-bust cycle of tourism?

IT DOESN’T DO ANY OF THAT.

It gets worse. The Troika plans to build more Bluebirds: one at Lift Tower Lodge, one on a YMCA parking lot, and one at 6th and Leadville. This is on top of the one we paid for ten years ago, Northwood Place, which the Mayor championed when he was head of the Ketchum Community Development Corp—another for-profit project developed by an out-of-state developer…GMD.

Then, there are all of The Troika’s other community-destroying actions, like the Main Street Project, the Washington Lot Project, etc.

How do We Stop This?

As long as The Troika is in office, we can’t. They have 18 months left in office and seem to be racing that clock to accomplish as much of their agenda as possible.

The Troika LIED and squandered our scarce money, land, and community character to house retirees and low-wage transient service industry workers. Yet we are a community short of teachers, health care professionals, and firefighters. We could have used our scarce resources to build housing for them. Why didn’t The Troika do that?

We need to vote them out. We need to get some more competent people to run for office.