Affordable housing is a shared quest

Share and share alike, the Blaine County Housing Authority will tell Blaine County and Ketchum’s money-wise officials, at least for now.

"Ultimately, the goal of the Blaine County Housing Authority is to become a self-sufficient entity," the organization’s director Karl Fulmer wrote to the Blaine County Commissioners in a letter.

"We need to equalize how much Ketchum and Blaine County pay. The housing authority does function more in the county," Fulmer said.

Last Tuesday, the director told other authority members this year’s proposed budget will remain pretty level with last year’s.

However, the roughly $98,000 Fulmer figures his group will need to operate next year should rely more heavily on Blaine County’s purse than it has in the past, he said.

"The Blaine County Commissioners have stated housing is a necessity for them to focus on," Fulmer said.

Where Blaine County funded $32,500 of the authority’s work this year, Fulmer thinks $38,000 is a more appropriate contribution for next year. On the other side, Ketchum’s $65,000 share this year could look more like $59,600 in the coming year.

While neither of these shifts concern staggering amounts of money, they show something that is perhaps self-apparent in terms of affordable housing’s future.

"We expect more projects in the [unincorporated] county," Fulmer said. "As we become more active over time, we will give more attention to county business."

This relationship is something of a double-edged sword.

Blaine County officials, understandably, want to see real housing results come from their sponsorship of the authority.

But the authority can’t apply to build a housing project, such as one it’s looking at near the mouth of East Fork Canyon, without county guidelines.

"The county said for us to continue giving funds to you, you need to come up with units," Fulmer said. "We need an ordinance to do that."

That ordinance would come in the form of a Community Housing Planned Unit Development chapter to slide into the Blaine County Subdivision Ordinance.

A new version of that subdivision ordinance is currently caught in the county grist mill, awaiting approval.

As it stands, county agendas and planners’ schedules are full with the likes of agricultural land use dilemmas and subdivision, St. Luke’s hospital and ordinance hearings.

Fulmer said it would be several months before the community housing law gets anywhere in hearings and the authority can really start earning its keep by creating projects.

Actually, there is light at the end of the tunnel the authority now navigates.

Once the first few community housing projects are built, the authority can collect fees for its work marketing the houses and advising developers.

These fees could leave the authority standing on its own two feet.

"Over time [the authority] will become a self-sustaining entity," Fulmer said.

Until then, the authority’s must rely on county and city funding to beat local inertia and get the affordable housing ball rolling.