BLAINE COUNTY, Idaho — Blaine County is well-known for its slopes and skiing, but the area isn't known for its affordable housing.
With more than 100 people in Blaine County living in temporary housing - and 48 people in danger of losing their temporary housing - community organizations are calling on officials to help meet housing needs.
The Hunger Coalition was one of six groups that penned a letter to the Blaine County Commissioners asking for change.
"As far back as September, we went in front of Ketchum City Council at that time and said we're seeing this, we've been watching an influx of workers come into the valley without adequate housing solutions," Brooke Pace McKenna, co-executive director of The Hunger Coalition said. "We saw it then. And we knew that we were going to be facing a big winter, and potentially even bigger crisis with housing."
The food relief organization says their top priority is currently emergency housing. They've come up with temporary housing solutions, including placing people in hotel rooms.
Over the holidays, The Hunger Coalition worked with other nonprofits and city government to create a temporary shelter for five days to accommodate people who had to be moved out of the hotels due to prior reservations.
"And the reality is, we're back in that situation," McKenna said. "Now we have even more people who are facing a temporary emergency, being kicked out of their hotel rooms again. So we're asking for a better, more long-term fix to this through the winter. We need an emergency shelter that's going to be available to these people."
The group of six local organizations read their letter to the Blaine County Commissioners on Tuesday. They made three requests in the letter:
- An emergency declaration by Blaine County, and the cities of Ketchum, Sun Valley, Hailey, Bellevue, and Carey would send a loud and clear message to our state government as well as mobilize local resources.
- Establish a solution-oriented task force led by government to plan and implement policies and best practices designed to meet the emerging humanitarian crisis. This would mitigate the life safety issues presented our community's at risk and vulnerable populations including but not limited to temporary housing (needed by January 21st) that the nonprofits could support with wrap around services.
- Establish a meeting cadence with a robust communication platform that allows for real-time situational reporting by community stakeholders.
"The evidence for us as we have well over 100 people living in hotel rooms, and that's a really short-term and always changing situation," Naomi Spence, co-executive director for The Hunger Coalition said. "So the evidence is all of these folks are displaced - and those are only the folks that have come to us asking for help. I don't know how many other folks are living out here that have no connection with us yet."
The Alliance of Idaho is the only nonprofit in Blaine County that provides immigration services. They've seen an increase in housing needs for asylum seekers and families.
"We joined this letter because we've seen a huge influx in families coming in, mostly from Peru. And there is literally no housing," Becky Lopez, executive director for The Alliance of Idaho said. "It is winter, a lot of these families are freezing. And so we feel like it is an emergency for the community to help us to get these families a warm home so they can survive during the winter."
The letter said more than 100 residents, many of whom are children, are being housed in temporary locations. The Hunger Coalition says the county only has one shelter - a women's domestic violence shelter that's at capacity.
48 of those residents will be losing their temporary housing in hotel rooms for three days, due to prior hotel reservations in 13 rooms.
"So some of the folks are saying and some of the folks are being pushed out, and then they can go back for five days - and then they have to move out again," Spence said. "Where are 48 people going to go for three days? So that's why if there's a shelter, that is going to be the catch-all when folks are being displaced or moved around. And people that are just showing up, we can put them in a shelter instead of having to raise funds to put them in a hotel room."
The Hunger Coalition says they've seen people living in campers that aren't winterized, and substandard housing that doesn't have heat.
"Everybody that's in the hotel rooms is working. So they are all employed, which means there's a need for them here in the community as far as workforce goes," Spence said. "And unfortunately, their basic needs are not being met by the community."
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