No community in Wyoming has more practical experience with affordable housing issues than Jackson.

How to make homes available to middle-income workers has been on the agenda since long before the state's most recent energy boom. Jackson Hole is blessed with majestic mountains, world-class skiing and great fly fishing, which makes the area an easy sell, if not an inexpensive one.

"Recruitment isn't necessarily the challenge," said Anne Hayden Cresswell, executive director of the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust. "It's retention."

Local school officials say, only partly in jest, that Jackson ranks among the premier training grounds for young teachers, who work a few years then take their experience elsewhere, so among other things, they can afford to buy a home.

The average sales price for an existing Teton County home in 2006 was $806,287, compared to $158,950 in Natrona County, according to county assessor data. As far back as 1997, the average for Teton County was $300,000, at a time when it was only $78,500 in Natrona County.

Push comes to shove, a community essentially has two ways to address its work-force housing needs, Cresswell said: "One is with increased density and one is with dollars."

The Jackson housing trust has used a blended approach; housing density is increased consistent with adjacent neighborhoods and community character, coupled with subsidies�to hold down costs.

Land is purchased or received as donations. The trust then acts as a project developer. It retains ownership of the land and sells a fee-simple interest in the residential unit.

The resale value of the home is restricted to an�annual appreciation rate of no more than 4 percent. This contrasts to a 46 percent increase in the average sales price for an existing Teton County home that occurred from 2005 to 2006.

Infrastructure costs -- for such things as sewers, streets, gutters and utility hookups-- can be a major obstacle. The housing trust has a project that required a $100,000 per unit infrastructure subsidy: "We survive because of private donations," Cresswell said.

The trust has thus far created 85 units, with land to build up to 71 more.

Providing work-force housing requires broad support from governmental bodies, appraisers, title companies, local lenders, attorneys and even neighbors, who are often concerned about traffic, density and wildlife impacts, Cresswell says. It can be a complex and daunting process.

But for a town that needs affordable housing to preserve the integrity its work force, the costs of doing nothing can be steep.

"On this issue, time works against us. It doesn't get easier, it does not get cheaper to build affordable housing the longer you wait," Cresswell said.

She advises communities to get land under contract, even as they grapple with design and development issues.

"But if you have an inkling that this is a long-term struggle for your community, to sit around and wait and not do anything can be incredibly damaging," she said.

Business Editor Tom Mast can be reached at tom.mast@trib.com, or call 307-266-0574.

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