Subsidies making homes affordable in resort towns

JACKSON, Wyo. — After spending his day in front of a middle school classroom, teacher Brook Yeomans sometimes jumps on his skateboard for the short commute to his home, a two-story, coffee-colored townhouse with views of the vast Wyoming mountains.

The home is the equivalent of real estate gold: He and his wife, Jessica, recently purchased it for $230,000, a far cry from its $750,000 market price.

In most of the country, the two-income couple would be unlikely candidates for subsidized housing. But in this Rocky Mountain resort town, where the median home price is $1.2 million, officials have made it a top priority to keep public employees and other middle-income residents living in town, and if that means subsidizing families with incomes up to six figures, so be it.

"We were so lucky," said Yeomans, who has a 2-year-old son and is expecting his second child this month. "Affordable housing has basically allowed us to have a family here. Because I can guarantee you that the minute we had a kid, if we couldn't find a place to live, we would have probably moved somewhere where we could."

Towns like Jackson are increasingly relying on affordable housing programs to stay vibrant while the wealthy snap up million-dollar vacation properties with sprawling views of the craggy, snowcapped mountains. In one ski town, the city manager — who earns $125,000 a year — lives in subsidized housing.

Christine Walker, director of the Teton County Housing Authority in Jackson, said the goal is to prevent people from having to commute from more affordable towns nearby. Since the wealthy are using the homes as vacation destinations, they aren't living there full time, so the communities would wilt in the off season without a steady population.

"This place will turn into Disneyland if we don't have anybody that actually lives here," Walker said. "It's like, 'OK, lights on,' and the whole work force will just commute in, work here during the day. And then, 'lights out,' and travel back."

School officials credit the program with helping recruit and retain teachers like Yeomans. The starting salary for a teacher in the Jackson area is about $50,000 a year.

"We see what we call a 'churn' after about six to eight years," said Pam Shea, superintendent of Teton County School District. "Once people who've been here for a while, if they are not able to obtain housing, they will move away or to our neighboring communities."