In Jackson Hole, a housing shortage and soaring real estate prices leave workers with few options

Lee Rog owned a house once.

Years ago, he was working as a contractor in Arkansas and after some time managed to purchase a home of his own. But, well-traveled as he was, he missed the ocean and moved to San Francisco, looking for the surf and a job if he could find it.

But the city got old, Rog said, and he picked up sticks and moved again, back into the mountains where he grew up. These days, he’s living in an impromptu village of campers, pop-ups and van dwellers in the dusty parking lot behind the Teton County/Jackson Parks and Recreation Department, where he works as a street operator. He finds his peace there, between his place of work and an active construction zone where more than 30 new affordable apartments soon will be on the market.

Like many of his neighbors, Rog, 47, is an indispensable part of the community — part of a crowd of seekers come to Jackson to sweep its sidewalks and shuttle its tourist-filled buses up and down Broadway under the shadow of one of North America’s most majestic mountain ranges.

To keep the town running, Jackson not only wants people like Rog — it needs them. Any person can roll into town and flip open the Jackson Hole News&Guide to six pages of help wanted ads, each offering wages from $18 an hour to near-six figure salaries for jobs that pay meagerly anywhere else in the state.

Read more: https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/in-jackson-hole-a-housing-shortage-and-soaring-real-estate/article_24df289d-7188-5ab4-b9e0-9e562c1a7685.html

Read more: https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/in-jackson-hole-a-housing-shortage-and-soaring-real-estate/article_24df289d-7188-5ab4-b9e0-9e562c1a7685.html
(Casper Star Tribune)