Housing market tight for local workers

Last year, Kellogg School Superintendent Sandra Pommerening couldn’t hire some of her top choices for new teachers.

After looking at housing options in Idaho’s Silver Valley, the teachers declined to accept the district’s job offers. Nothing they liked matched their price range.

“We want the highest-quality teachers we can get for our students,” Pommerening said. “But it’s getting so they can’t afford to live here.”

Work-force housing — the ability of wage earners to afford mortgage or rental payments — is becoming an issue in many North Idaho communities. But the Silver Valley faces some particular challenges.

“ An emerging resort economy means that locals compete for real estate with outside investors and part-time residents seeking vacation homes.

“ Much of existing housing stock is 40 to 80 years old, and needs extensive renovation.

“ The area’s new housing developments are almost exclusively targeted to high-end buyers.

Half of the families in Shoshone County earned $41,000 or less last year, according federal statistics. Those folks are looking for homes in the $130,000 range, not resort condos priced at $500 to $600 per square foot, said Jerry Brantz, chief executive officer of Shoshone Medical Center.

About 18 months ago, Brantz and other community leaders started talking about the need for work-force housing. Without action, they feared the valley would have trouble recruiting nurses, firefighters, sheriff’s deputies and school bus drivers.

The discussions led to the creation of the Shoshone County Housing Corp., which is in the process of applying for nonprofit status. Organizers have kicked around a number of ideas for providing work-force housing, and hope to get some plans in place later this year.

“We don’t have a lot of time to sit around and talk about it,” said Walter Hadley, planning administrator for the city of Kellogg. In Shoshone County, the average residential sales price doubled in two years, to $133,182 in 2006.

Kellogg is the epicenter for resort development in the Silver Valley, with 3,000 new condo and single-family dwellings planned over the next decade. Some of the projects will include one or two on-site apartments for workers, Hadley said. For large developments, the developers might be required to donate to a work-force housing fund, which would build affordable units elsewhere in the valley.

Shoshone County is also looking through its inventory of property — some of which was acquired through foreclosures during past mining downturns. The Shoshone County Housing Corp. recently received a $15,000 federal grant to study what it would take to turn a county-owned building in Silverton into affordable apartments.