V2N17: Subsidized Housing For Nannies

Is this our community vision for affordable housing?

City of Ketchum Now Providing Taxpayer Subsidized Housing For Nannies

If you are a family “of means” with young kids in Sun Valley, Ketchum, or Gimlet (or anywhere in Blaine County), you might want to employ a nanny to help with child care. There are lots of things to think about. Nannies are expensive. And do you want to have someone living in your house?

Good news! The taxpayers of Ketchum are here for you. If you pay your nanny below the prevailing wage rate in Blaine County, they can live in taxpayer-subsidized housing in Ketchum. You can still fly private with them. You can still give them a car to shuttle the kids to school.

I know it sounds ridiculous that Ketchum taxpayers would subsidize housing for staff of the wealthy, but that is happening right now at Bluebird. 4% of Bluebird tenants are nannies.

I am not trying to pick on nannies or those who employ them. I am picking on a city bureaucracy that thinks this is a good use of scarce taxpayer resources.¹

It is not. It is absurd.

Pay Attention to What They Do, Not What they Say

“I believe that we all want to find a way to allow our teachers to be able to stay on after school so that they can play in the softball league, attend trivia night, volunteer for a nonprofit or contribute to our community in many other ways. I believe we want our volunteer firefighters and paramedics to live closer so they are quicker to respond to an emergency situation. We want our service workers to avoid a long drive home and be able to help with a youth soccer team, play in the local band and participate in town life. Finally, I know we want our health-care workers to stay in our town so they can get that extra hour of sleep and be rested and better able to cope with the trauma case that they may face the next day.”

That sounds like something I might have written here in The Ketchum Sun!

Mayor Bradshaw wrote these words in a Mountain Express Op-Ed on February 3, 2021. This is how he sold Bluebird to Ketchum’s residents. He asked if the people who opposed Bluebird were being “prejudiced.” Hmm.

We now know that he lied.

Confirmation of the Bluebird Lie

Here’s what we learned about Bluebird at this week’s Ketchum City Council meeting.² Bluebird was not, is not, and never will be for Ketchum’s essential workers. It is not necessarily for Ketchum workers or even workers.

According to an update³ to the Council from Ketchum Housing Director Carissa Connelly, only half the tenants work in Ketchum, and only 10% are essential workers. By including the nannies, she increased that to 14%.

How does this solve Ketchum’s workforce challenges? Obviously, it doesn’t. So, as one would expect, the Council wants to build more of this.

It’s not all bad news at Bluebird. I was wrong about a couple of things. There aren’t any retirees there (yet). The effort to recruit homeless people from Twin Falls failed. Only 79% of the tenants have cars, and, at least for now, there is enough parking in the building for them. One of our Council members thinks these indicators of the project's success should be “shouted from the rooftops.”

While she is shouting, can she also shout, “Only five essential workers and half the tenants don’t work in Ketchum!”?

Which Comes First, The Project or the Developer?

At the meeting, the Council authorized the staff to issue RFPs for two sites, the Y parking lot and the replacement of Lift Tower Lodge.

The RFPs are for… what? For housing that meets certain income limits. In the case of the Y, they want it to be three and four-bedroom units. That’s about all the specs. How do you respond to that kind of an RFP?

The city has no clarity on the proposals they request for these sites. They don’t know the minimum/maximum units or finish level or what type of housing mix or type. They don’t know what kind of income limits or what level of LEED certification. They have criteria that at least one person in every unit needs to work at least 30 hours per week somewhere in Blaine County. They hope WRCHT wins the RFP for the Y.⁴ That’s about it. They will let developers tell them what they want to do. No one at City Hall has any particular expertise in housing development. It shows.

In your view, is this a good process?

1. It appears to be official policy of the Ketchum Housing Department to classify nannies as “essential workers.”

2. This was yet another City Council meeting in which public comment was limited only to what was legally required.

3. This update was not on the Council agenda. It is ironic that Ms. Connelly, in her other job as Executive Director of BCHA, recently chided its chair for wanting to speak about something not on the BCHA agenda. Also, her entire presentation was not included in the meeting packet when the agenda was released.

4. Me, too.