The city of Ketchum is applying for a $5 million federal grant to boost affordable housing development.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s new $85 million “Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing” funding opportunity is for cities that have severe housing needs and local barriers to affordable housing production and preservation.
In Ketchum, those obstacles include being surrounded by public lands, declines in residential construction and units rented out long-term, and not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) sentiments, said city Housing Fellow Rian Rooney.
“An inconsistent political appetite has challenged our ability to develop low-income, affordable, community housing, historically,” he said, noting the reception to housing efforts has changed since the pandemic exacerbated the existing affordability trends.
Ketchum would use about $4.6…
