CASCADE, Idaho — Many of us love to visit Valley County whether it’s Cascade, Donnelly, or McCall but to live here and find affordable housing can be a big challenge.
- Valley County Planning and Zoning recognizes the housing challenges.
- Officials in the County are trying to find solutions by promoting new businesses with apartments and purchasing land for future affordable housing.
- Many employers in the area are getting involved with the housing market because finding a place to live is key for new employees.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
“I don’t know if we have affordable housing in this county anymore”
Cynda Herrick would know. For the past 28 years Herrick has been the Planning and Zoning Director for Valley County. Herrick has seen Cascade transition from a logging community to a tourism-based mountain town. “We don’t have a lot of apartment complexes; our cities are challenged with sewer and water capacity, so we have a lot of challenges.
But Herrick says they’re trying to find solutions by promoting new businesses with apartments and purchasing land for future affordable housing.
Josh Hurley who works for the Cascade School District told me his family lived in a fifth wheel before finding a place call home. “That’s very tough with winters we have and all the complications, a lot of those aren’t made to live in full time so that exactly what we did for the first eight months or so.”
The district does provide rental houses with a two-year lease, hoping the employee can do something when the lease is up, but as Superintendent Joni Peterson points out, it’s always a struggle. “Do you think you lost good candidates through the years because of the housing issues, yes, 100 percent.”
Lindsey Harris is Executive Director for the West Central Mountains Economic Development Council. Harris describes the Valley County crunch this way.
“A lot of employers are providing housing and getting involved in the housing market because it’s key to someone accepting a job is having a place to live so we have gotten feedback on applications, if you have a place, to live, you’re hired, in some instances.”
Case in point, Cynda Herrick is looking to hire someone in her office, and I role played and asked her if I could apply. “Do you have a place to live? No. You need to look around before you accept this job.”
