Raechel Driscoll had been employed at the Blaine County School District for a period of five years until she had to depart due to a family emergency. After taking a year off, she made the decision to return and was fortunate enough to be offered a position with the district. Driscoll spent almost a month searching for a suitable place to live.
Driscoll, an administrative assistant with a teenage daughter, found that rental prices in the Sun Valley area were out of reach. Sun Valley is often associated with luxury and is a popular destination for the wealthy. In addition, her income exceeds the eligibility criteria for income-restricted housing.
Then the school district, in collaboration with a local affordable housing developer, presented an opportunity. The Blaine County School District and Advocates for Real Community Housing (ARCH) recently completed the construction of five homes with rent control, exclusively for district employees. Driscoll’s application has been approved and she will be moving in this month.
“It definitely made the difference between my ability to be in the valley and come back to what I consider home and my daughter’s home,” she said. “Without it, I don’t know that I would have been able to pull it off.”
Housing costs pose a significant challenge in attracting and retaining school employees in Idaho resort communities. According to a previous report by Idaho Education News, there are candidates who choose not to apply due to the high cost of housing, while others end up backing out of job offers when they are unable to find suitable living arrangements. There have been instances where teachers have experienced homelessness.
That is why school districts in Blaine County and McCall, another resort community in the mountains north of Boise, have decided to construct their own housing for staff members. Last week, the administrators and trustees of Blaine, along with their developer partners and generous donors, celebrated the completion of new housing units. These units include a four-plex of three-bedroom homes and a separate studio apartment.
Residents of the new Blaine County homes will be required to pay a maximum of 30% of their adjusted gross income for rent. Additionally, tenants who have student loan debt may qualify for a deduction if their college degree is relevant to their current occupation.
At a ribbon-cutting event last week, district administrators and ARCH executives highlighted the impressive speed at which the five new homes were financed and built. In 2022, the District reached out to ARCH, a nonprofit organization that has constructed over 130 affordable housing units since 2009. They were approached to develop an empty lot next to the district’s office in Hailey.
ARCH successfully raised the necessary funds and efficiently constructed the homes within a span of two years.
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