$60,000 a year…that equates to $30/hour, double the $15 wage target people are fighting for. And it’s not enough.
“If you live in Ketchum, there’s no shortage of work. There’s just a shortage of where you can live,” said Mr. McKee-Bakos, who works as a supply manager at a local hospital and a bouncer at a bar. “This is the first time I’ve experienced any type of homelessness.”
Like many towns in the West with economies built around tourism, Ketchum is facing a cascading housing crisis caused by a rush of new residents during the Covid-19 pandemic, growing demand for workers during the economic boom that has followed, and a shortage of affordable homes that was years in the making.
Just another town where the land values are so high — the revenue rentiers can extract from them so lucrative — that working people, the ones who make the town go, are left out in the tiresome game of musical chairs that is the private property market. A desirable location and the recreational benefits that go with it, some historical ties (Hemingway is associated with the town) — none of which was created by the people who hold the land — and all the value gets siphoned out by rentiers and landlords.