If the shortage of affordable housing in Blaine County for wage earners has been deplorable, new statistics on what workers must earn to rent housing only adds to the bleakness. A new study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition puts Blaine County high up on the list of the most expensive areas for rentals.
Here's a snapshot:
The fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Blaine County is $821—the costliest of any Idaho county. A worker needs an hourly wage of $15.79 to afford that rental rate. However, the mean average hourly wage in Blaine County, according to the study, is $9.76—a rate that would allow a monthly rental of only $508 for a two-bedroom apartment.
Blaine County isn't alone in the housing crisis. In Flagstaff, Ariz., a premiere college town as well as resort, the inability of $50,000-a-year faculty members at Northern Arizona University to buy a typical $310,000 home has prompted NAU and other businesses to develop affordable housing to attract and retain professors.
The Wood River Valley's growing inability to provide housing workers can afford poses a major challenge for business and civic leaders.
Without a dependable work force paid adequately, and without a dependable source of housing to accommodate them, the worker shortage that could develop could be as economically threatening as if Baldy lacked enough snow for the ski season.
This is no time for timid thinking or indecision.
