{"id":21235,"date":"2024-07-24T01:29:29","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T07:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=21235"},"modified":"2024-07-22T16:33:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T22:33:32","slug":"update-on-bluebird-village-housing-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/24\/update-on-bluebird-village-housing-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on Bluebird Village Housing Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL<\/em><\/p>\n

The housing crisis afflicting the entire country can seem even more potent in Blaine County as each city attempts to address it in their own way. Finding a permanent home in the Valley can take years, depending on who you ask, and even rental rates are far above the national average.
\nAccording to census.gov, for 2023, the median income in Blaine County, in 2022 dollars, was $81,000. There were 16,000 housing units for a population of 25,041. With 18.3% of the population under 18, that leaves around 20,000 adults. Sun Valley is a community of adults. So why is the housing and rental situation so amplified in the media? Is it really an issue? It would appear so, even such that Ketchum has focused so much time and resources on addressing the issue.<\/p>\n

Bluebird<\/strong>
\nThere are so many moving parts to a housing project that it defies concise explanation. Banks, investors, developers, government\u2014it\u2019s a huge labyrinth of waterslides conducting money through policy and teamwork.
\nBluebird is the name of an income-restricted housing project that is nearing completion in Ketchum. According to https:\/\/bluebirdketchum.com\/ \u201cBluebird Village is the affordable housing community you have been waiting for. Conveniently located in the heart of downtown Ketchum\u2019s retail core and close to everything for an active lifestyle.\u201d
\nBluebird offers energy-efficient homes in various sizes, each unit of which has been measured for specific income levels. They offer:<\/p>\n

* Studios
\n* 1 bed 1 bath
\n* 2 bed 1 bath
\n* 2 bed 2 bath
\n* 3 bed 2 bath<\/p>\n

Carissa Connelly<\/strong>
\nThe Blaine County Housing Authority (BCHA) oversees all local regulations as well as the interviewing process for potential tenants to inhabit these new homes. Carissa Connelly, housing director for the City of Ketchum, spoke at length on the fascinating structure of the project.
\n\u201cThese projects take a very long time and there are a ton of players. First tax credits are applied for, in this case as far back as 2019. Then what usually happens is site selection, often property owned by the city, and then an application is put together that is incredibly intensive. It can be over 100 pages of varying documents that are sent to Idaho Housing Finance Association (IHFA). This can take three to five months just to review and then hopefully an award letter comes out.\u201d
\nA huge process, there are also a myriad of reasons for each step. \u201cAll the developments won\u2019t be awarded unless there are local funds in it. Tax credits are essentially a massive equity injection into the development. Like a down payment, you know, you try to put down 20% and then the debt you pay is on the 80%. So the larger the 80% is, the more you pay, and so with tax credits for low-income housing to get the rent so low, your operating expenses have to be really low and debt has to be tiny. So that massive equity injection is a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Affordability<\/strong>
\n\u201cIn this case, Bluebird came from city-owned property. As a space, old city hall was a mess, it was ready for demolition. They have a new city hall now and as they owned this location, using it made it easier to keep rents low since there was no major land purchase. The city has a ground lease and in that there are stipulations around affordability. IHFA has 45-year restrictions on affordability.\u201d
\nHow is affordability determined? \u201cThe national standard is for people to not be paying more than 30% of their income on housing, inclusive of utilities, fees and everything related to housing. It\u2019s a really intricate system for calculating by household size and bedroom size. As the size increases, the income limit increases, and so each unit is designated for a specific income level, which finds rent on those units based on what is affordable for that income level according to Blaine County\u2019s area median income. In Bluebird, most units sit between 50\u00ac\u201370% area median income specific to Blaine County and what is affordable for each of those tiers of income in Blaine County.\u201d
\nThe developers of Bluebird also developed Northwood Place near the fire station in Ketchum. They continue with the same property manager and it all becomes a game of finance. Why is there such a problematic housing crisis? Why not have local developers create more of these low-income projects?
\n\u201cPeople often ask why not have a local developer develop low-income housing, but it\u2019s extremely complicated, with multiple layers of funding sources that all have their own regulations and requirements. If you get out of compliance on any of them, you have to pay that money back. So it\u2019s hard for developers to even get in the game without a mentor. Same with the property management side. They have to do more training than usual as they\u2019re screening people\u2019s income. It\u2019s so deep and detailed that of all housing programs this one is overseen by the IRS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Development<\/strong>
\nAfter 15 years, the entire building will be owned by the Ketchum Community Development Corporation, a local nonprofit. They will have long-term ownership of the building and the City of Ketchum will have long-term ownership of the land.
\nSo who are the key players? \u201cGMD Development out of Seattle are the developers. They\u2019re the ones that get all funding together. They coordinate the architect, the contractors, the permits, the property management and then the City of Ketchum puts in funding and ground leasing. BCHA provides the property manager with the wait list. IHFA is the one that says whether the property is eligible for tax credits and they are who receive the huge application and documentation along with the banks. The IRS and third -arty auditors are also on the periphery. So it\u2019s a huge, huge project.\u201d
\nAnd one huge thing to make note of is that if you are looking for housing, you could still potentially qualify for Bluebird. \u201cIf you don\u2019t get in now,it will be almost impossible later. It\u2019s the most stable form of housing you can get into outside of ownership. Over 50% of people who currently need housing are on a month to month or verbal lease, which means they literally have no rights to their home in 30 days. We have such a landlord-friendly market that landlords can do what they want.\u201d
\nAnd what about income? Don\u2019t most people make too much in Blaine County? \u201cOne thing people assume is that they make too much. Because there\u2019s different incomes for different units, it\u2019s really anyone who\u2019s below the median of about $80,000 per year.\u201d
\nBluebird is projected to open for move-in this September, with the exact date unknown at this time. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of waiting on an elevator delivery.\u201d Connelly laughs.
\nIf you qualify for Bluebird, congratulations! You\u2019re going up!<\/p>\n

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BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL The housing crisis afflicting the entire country can seem even more potent in Blaine County as each city attempts to address it in their own way. Finding a permanent home in the Valley can take years, depending on who you ask, and even rental rates are far above the national average. According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,82,86,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-housing","9":"category-ketchum","10":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21237,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21235\/revisions\/21237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}