V2N26: BCHA/Ketchum Low-Income Housing Project on Y Lot Won’t Make Housing Affordable for Essential Workers

Also, more shady dealings by the Ketchum Urban Renewal Authority (KURA)

NB: Apologies for the gap in issues. I was away for the past month, partly for a vacation (Svalbard), but primarily for work (MITS.Capital).

BCHA Has ZERO Intention of Addressing Our Essential Workforce Shortage

In the three years since the Blaine County Housing Authority (BCHA) merged with the Ketchum Housing Department (KHD), the staff has not addressed the housing issues that have contributed to Ketchum’s shortage of essential workers. The “big lie” from the Mayor to garner support for Bluebird was that it was being built for what he called the “lifeblood” of Ketchum, its teachers, health care workers, and first responders. Yet almost none of those can reside in Bluebird. Instead, we have Ketchum taxpayer-subsidized housing for Sun Valley Co. employees, nannies, and many people who work in Hailey.

No one should be surprised at this outcome. The staff of BCHA/KHD doesn’t intend to provide ANY housing for essential workers. Indeed, BCHA policy prevents BCHA from delivering housing for specific employers, e.g., our schools, hospital, or police department. They have taken themselves out of that game entirely. It would be one thing if BCHA/KHD were transparent about this, but they are not. They do as much to minimize public scrutiny as they can legally get away with. So if you look to them to provide essential workforce housing in their upcoming projects, you will be disappointed.

If you want to know what BCHA is all about, read their latest email, “Housing Matters,” provided by the City of Ketchum. BCHA’s priority is not workforce housing but “fair” housing. They are creating an “Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice.” The intent is to address the historic wrongs of segregation and recreate Ketchum as an “inclusive community” via a wealth redistribution program they will manage.

This will not mitigate our workforce challenges or make housing more affordable for essential workers. But it will cost Ketchum taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

BCHA/KHD Is A Tool for Aspenization

The irony is that the BCHA/KHD staff’s housing fairness agenda is being used by people smarter than them to provide housing subsidies for the tourism industry. The capitalists are using the socialists, who haven’t figured it out. Sun Valley Co gets to keep its wages low and its employees trapped in taxpayer-subsidized housing, while the do-gooders think they are helping out the exploited. Meanwhile, the middle class gets squeezed out.

To achieve their ideological goal of what community housing should be in Ketchum, they have let themselves become pawns in the process I have called “Aspenization” (but it could be called “Vailification” or “Holeifying.).

It works like this: to maximize tourism revenue, you get rid of low-revenue locals in long-term rentals and replace them with higher-revenue tourists in AirBNBs, and wealthy vacation home owners who pay a lot in property taxes and at restaurants but who don’t use many services and don’t get a say in how the city is run. To keep wages depressed for the tourism industry, you tax everyone you can to build low-income housing projects with income caps that are too low to make these projects available to middle-class working people. Your town eventually becomes one big hotel with some housing projects for the staff.

Sound familiar?

How is that good for locals? How is that good for full-time residents? This terrible housing approach is bad for Ketchum and its current residents. The only way to stop it is to elect a new Council that works for the residents.

Are you an Essential Worker? Ketchum’s Y Housing Project is NOT FOR YOU

The City of Ketchum sent an RFP for community housing at the Y’s South Lot and the site of Lift Tower Lodge. Per the latest “Mayor’s Missive,” the LTL project isn’t currently feasible, but the City plans to proceed with the Y Project.

This will be built using Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). That isn't good for Ketchum. This means that this development will be like Bluebird. When you take Federal tax credits, you hand over control of the tenants to the Federal government. This means that tenant incomes are capped at levels so low that essential workers in Ketchum can’t move into these units unless they play some games to minimize their income. Think about that—you try to make less money to get into the housing.

This also means the housing cannot require tenants to work in Ketchum. A lot of the tenants in Bluebird work in Hailey. Think about that. Ketchum taxpayers are subsidizing depressed wages by Hailey employers with zero contribution from Hailey. Meanwhile, Bluebird does almost nothing to address Ketchum’s shortage of essential workers. Isn’t that…dumb? Why would we want to do more of that at the Y Lot?

One of the letters in the developer proposal package acknowledges the real purpose of this project: “We know the community of Ketchum needs housing to maintain its destination status and is facing difficult housing challenges.” (Emphasis added).

Here is what the housing this group builds looks like (taken from their proposal to Ketchum). It really fits with Ketchum, doesn’t it? This is the Ketchum envisioned by the Troika.

BCHA: Alice Wanders Further Into Wonderland

As an aside, if you want to understand how screwy BCHA is, they are about to change their definition of “Local Employee” from being someone who works at least 1500 hours a year in the WRV to being anyone that a Local Employer claims is their employee. Think about that.

Likewise, someone with a Disability is being redefined to include anyone whom unspecified other people “perceive” as disabled. Think about that.

Remember that this is on top of how KHD defines a “worker” to include people who don’t work, and “unhoused” to include people who commute more than 45 minutes to work. Given the traffic from ITD’s current project on 75, that could grow by a couple of thousand people.

This is the kind of approach that undermines confidence in governmental organizations like BCHA/KHD.

A Better Way Forward

So, what’s the fix? We need to separate BCHD from KHD to create accountability. Fiscally, we should tax tourist lodging and subsidize essential worker housing—those nurses, teachers, and first responders who actually serve Ketchum. KHD/BCHA’s approach, rooted in Fair Housing Act mandates and historical grievances, is a social experiment rather than a practical solution to Ketchum’s community challenges. If we want essential workforce housing, we must reject the BCHA/KHD approach and shift to the ARCH/WRCHT approach.

What do you think? Drop your thoughts below.

But wait, there’s more foolishness going on at City Hall that I can’t resist mentioning.

KURA is to Ketchum as Belarus is to Russia: Distinction without Difference

Tomorrow at its 2 pm meeting in City Hall, the Ketchum Urban Renewal Authority (KURA) will replace its retiring Executive Director, Suzanne Frick, with Ketchum’s City Administrator, Jade Riley. You can thank the Mayor for this.

In my opinion, KURA’s setup fails the legal test for independence under Idaho Code § 50-2006. The seven-member board, with two city councilors, a non-resident/non-taxpayer appointee, and all mayor-appointed members, plus Jade Riley’s dual role as city administrator-ED, creates excessive city influence, risking misuse of KURA’s resources. While legally allowed (no bans on councilors, non-residents, or dual roles), the structure violates the spirit of an “independent public body.” Tomorrow’s confirmation vote (May 19, 2025) is a key test—if the city councilors vote, or debate is cursory, it confirms my perceptions.

As a Ketchum resident and taxpayer, I don’t want the City Administrator doing two jobs. We have plenty for him to do with the City without taking on KURA. Why would the Mayor, who is supposed to be running the City in the residents' interests, think this is good for us?

THIS IS TERRIBLE GOVERNANCE, but it is what we have come to expect from the Troika of Bradshaw/Breen/Hamilton.