STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Two hundred affordable workforce housing units have been built or remodeled by ARCH Community Housing Trust since the not-for-profit organization was founded 20 years ago.

The units, which have included duplexes and single-family homes throughout the valley, have met the needs of 329 healthcare workers, teachers, first responders, electricians and others.

This past week more than a hundred supporters came together to see that the work continues for more than 300 Blaine County residents on the waitlist.

Art and Manijeh Brueggeman bask in the shade of the giant boulders placed around the property.

“ARCH fills the gap of people working here to be able to live here. ARCH is the solution to the problem,” ARCH Executive Director Michelle Griffith told attendees.

The annual fundraising dinner—only the organization’s fourth—took place at an ultra-modern home under towering cottonwood trees along the Big Wood River at the base of Bald Mountain.

Attendees walked through towering steel archway embedded with vertical slabs of Oakley stone meant to replicate the bark of the cottonwood trees. They walked around a lush lawn featuring concrete pavers meant to resemble piano keys.

And they chit-chatted in the shade of huge boulders brought in from around the state, the largest weighing 135,000 pounds.

Ron and Susan Greenspan take a walkabout with Constance around the property prior to the dinner’s start.

Had the boulders not been moved to the site, they likely would have wound up being crushed into gravel, said Architect Susan Desko. Reportedly, Desko added, the property used to be the site for several log cabins and Carole King and Joni Mitchell even sang there. When the property sold, the cabins were reportedly moved to King’s ranch near Stanley.

ARCH Board President Don Lemman told those feasting on trout served by At Your Place that there is no community if there is no housing for teachers and others.

“What happens when the people we rely on no longer can afford to live here?” asked auctioneer Fred Northrup.  “Imagine going to the hospital and not having any nurses. Imagine needing firefighters and having no firefighters. These people should live in Blaine County. We don’t want 911 to be a long-distance phone call.”

Those who live in ARCH housing make too much money to get federal assistance but too little to be able to afford housing on their own, given the valley’s cost of living. They pay between $859 and $1,450 a month in rent for ARCH housing.

Jeanne Herberger was honored as “Our Housing Hero” for making matching donations of $4.5 million to ARCH over the past four years.

“So, we’re providing rents at a rate that regular person can afford,” said Michelle Griffith.

Six renters, including a first responder and a teacher, just moved into one-bedroom units at the newly renamed Herberger Hideaway in Hailey, formerly known as the Ellsworth Inn. And ARCH is getting ready to break ground on 12 additional three- and four-bedroom duplexes and homes with attached garages on the property.

ARCH is starting to move the needle in other ways, as well, Griffith said. One woman, faced with a rent increase she couldn’t afford, told her landlord that she would be moving to the Hideaway. When he heard that, he matched the rent she would have paid there and gave her a two-year lease on the property she had been renting, meaning someone else could move into a unit at Herberger Hideaway.

“I’m so excited about the Ellsworth house and so humbled to see it named the Herberger Hideaway,” said Jeanne Herberger, who was named “Our Housing Hero” for having given $4 million in matching challenges up until the night of the fundraiser. “ARCH is actually an organization getting things done.”

Chris and LeeAnne Linderman and John and Sandry Flattery celebrate the success of ARCH Community Housing Trust.

As the fundraising portion of the night commenced, Herberger once again stepped up to the plate, offering a matching grant of $500,000. It was easily matched by those in attendance, as was another $75,000 matching challenge, as supporters raised paddles for $50,000, $25,000, $10,000 and other amounts.

Additionally, Ellen and Arthur Rubinfeld donated a house worth a million dollars to ARCH.

“We will find a place to move a house any time someone wants to give us a home,” Griffith said afterwards.

Even one of ARCH’s renters donated $500 during the evening—a gesture that left Herberger beaming.

“So excited. Everyone’s so generous,” she said, as pledges marched toward nearly $1.5 million, or nearly $2.5 million including the house.

Architect Marty Kaplan described how he volunteered his time designing 11 units in three projects after Blaine County School Superintendent Jim Foudy told him of the challenges of recruiting teachers given high housing costs.

“We have a problem and we have to pull together as a community to address it,” said Carrie Morrow.

Dan Benson also noted the importance of providing housing for those who live here: “We moved to Bellevue in 2006 from the Upper East Side in New York City, and we love it. It’s important to make it possible for others to live here, as well.”

Liz Keegan said she was happy to see the Ellsworth Inn renamed the Herberger Hideaway.

“It's very significant for someone to put their name on workforce housing,” she said. “Twice in the last few years, I asked Lukas Haynes, former Executive Director of the David Rockefeller Fund, why someone will endow a chair at a university or fund a wing of a hospital but won't put their name on workforce housing. He didn't have an answer. Today we should be grateful to Jeanne Herberger for her vision to lend her name and leave a legacy for our workers in our community.”