Cowgrrl Up! recently spoke with the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust's Executive Director, Anne Hayden-Cresswell about how affordable housing issues impact women in our area. This is the second in an occasional series of conversations with women leaders about women and housing in Jackson Hole.
CU: We've heard that a lot of the affordable housing goes to single women or female-headed families. Do you know any stats on this?
With respect to the Housing Trust only, 56% of all current homeowners are single people, 53% of all active applicants are single. I don't have any data that tracks single/female heads of households.
CU: Do you know if stats on Jackson's commuter workforce are broken down by gender?
I know that the Housing Needs Assessment found 33% of our workforce commutes to work each day.
CU: More generally, do you think affordable housing in Jackson is a women's issue? If so, how?
Generally speaking, I find social service issues and non-profit work to be dominated by women. The Board of the Housing Trust is made up of a near even split of men/women.
CU: What can women do to advocate for themselves as Jackson moves forward with its comprehensive plan?
Anybody and everybody needs to engage in the conversation. Affordable housing as an issue, in my opinion, has matured in Jackson over the last 15 years. We actually know a lot about what works and what doesn't work. Given the stage of development/growth we are in as a community, it is no longer helpful to have 30,000 foot conversations about where we build affordable housing and how we are going to make it happen. At this point in time, we need to be solution oriented and the solutions need to be practical. We have to understand that private property rights limit a lot of the opportunities that are discussed. Financial realities make many suggested solutions to affordable housing impossible. The conversations that I have been hearing, related to the comp plan in general and affordable housing in particular, seem to be framed in a bubble. I see a real lack of appreciation for the complete picture that needs to be discussed-the practical realities and the immutable truths that are simply left out of the conversation. It is not helpful to simplify the situation. We need to have a comprehensive dealogue that incorporates the trade offs of each option/alternative.
Ultimately, there are two ways to address the affordable housing problem: density or dollars. And there are real hurdles to both. We need a balance of both, we need to work together, we need to be really respectful of everyone at the table, and we need to think outside of the box; we need to be willing to try (and to fail!) at new ideas. The status quo is not an option.
CU: Do you think town and county leaders need to take women's issues into account as they move forward with Planning? (Wage differences, occupational demographics, need for proximity to health care...)
Absolutely. Women are an asset in the workplace and in elected office. We typically bring an entirely different skill set to the table that can't be recreated in any other way.
The barriers to entry for working women in Jackson (high cost of living) and working women with children (day care!) make it prohibitively expensive to run for office (or even remain employed when day care is as expensive and volatile as it is). I am a strong believer in mentoring and taking full advantage of the phenomenal women we have in this community to help us negotiate our way through life and through the workplace. We need to support each other and encourage each other to get involved, because our voices bring different perspectives nearly every time.
Anne Hayden-Cresswell can be contacted at anne@housingtrustjh.org for continued conversation.
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