Town wants housing options for 70% of its own employees, but no units yet

Town of Jackson staff and consultant Navigate are asking council to bless a goal that would “secure housing units for 70% of town employees” in Teton County, Wyoming, with a mix of rentals and ownership options and a transparent selection process that starts with critical response and hard to fill roles. The proposal is explicit that the Town is not planning to build employee housing outside the county, and it frames the work as a recruitment and retention tool, not a perk. Details like income tiers, deed restrictions, and how many actual units get built are not in this phase yet. See the workshop packet: Town Council Workshop Agenda Packet.

The draft objectives read like the right priorities (local location, unit mix, affordability people can actually live with, and quality maintenance), but the document also shows the gap this community keeps living with: there is no unit count, no site list, and no funding plan beyond the $34,000 consultant contract already authorized. If council wants this to matter for workforce stability, the next step has to be turning “70%” into specific acquisitions or construction targets, tied to timelines and a real housing budget, not just another strategy PDF.