JACKSON, Wyo. — After a recent $100,000 donation from First Interstate Bank, Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Teton Area (Teton Habitat) is progressing through the first phase of the Parkside at Benson-Brown Station project.
The donation is a part of First Interstate Bank and the First Interstate BancSystem Foundation’s “Believe in Local” grant, and amounts to about a third of the total overall goal for the Parkside project.
According to Jason Bruni, construction lead for Teton Habitat, the money from the donation will cover the cost of raw materials in the first phase as well as the cost of hired subcontractors who assist the volunteer laborers with specific work like plumbing and electrical. The first phase includes the first two buildings of the planned six; each phase will focus on the construction of two buildings to eventually provide 18 total units for local workforce housing.
As of July, Executive Director of Teton Habitat Kris Greenville says the first six homeowners have been chosen and are fulfilling sweat equity hours on the job site. According to Greenville, each homeowner is required to fulfill 500 hours of sweat equity in addition to completing homeowner education courses that address topics like how to budget, insurance and HOA dues.
“We have a fairly extensive process that homeowners must move through before they’re handed a set of keys,” Greenville says. “They’re all vetted for their ability to pay, which is one of the critical factors Habitat looks at. The other two critical factors are their willingness to partner and the need.”
Greenville says defining and assessing individual needs is one of the harder parts of the selection committee’s job. They are currently looking at applications for the second group of homeowners.
Bruni says phase two will be starting this summer, with the entire project anticipated to be completed by late fall 2025.
Teton Habitat looks to the Teton County metric that aims for 65 percent of the community that works locally to be housed locally. Bruni says currently only 59 percent of the workforce has housing here.
“The 30 to 80 percent Area Median Income (AMI) range is the place Habitat builds at,” Bruni says. “That’s the place where the most amount of workers have the greatest housing needs.”
Teton Habitat aims to provide support and financial education upfront so that homeowners will eventually be able to sell their units back to the organization to be sold again. Teton Habitat does not provide rentals like the Teton County Affordable Housing Department and the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust, which is available to people who make up to 119 percent AMI.
“We function very differently but with the same purpose as these other worthy organizations,” Greenville says. “We all work towards the same goal.”
According to Greenville, Teton Habitat’s biggest challenge is where to build. They partner with Teton County and the Housing Department when they can, and are looking at what might be possible with private landowners in the future.
For more information on Teton Habitat, contact jason@tetonhabitat.org.
