Tara Bell Brower and Dillon Brower are fourth generation Idahoans who live with their young daughter, Bella, and their therapy dog, Tucker in the shadow of Sun Valley. As is the case in many resort communities, affluent owners of vacation homes in the area have been driving up housing costs, pushing year-round residents out of the market. 

With a PhD in physical therapy, and significant student loan debt, Dillon works 10 and 12-hour days to support their family. In four generations, no one in their family has owned their own home, Tara says. “However, (we) have all contributed and played vital roles in the working class community that keeps this valley going. We intend to do the same thing.” 

After returning to the valley after graduate school, they struggled to find affordable housing. They lived in their camp trailer and had to move every few days. They found hope through ARCH Community Housing Trust, which had developed a home on a piece of land granted to the county by a for-profit developer.

In being considered for the home, they wrote to the ARCH Board of Directors: “Our hope is that ARCH can help us come back to where we grew up, so that we can raise the fifth generation of our families in this beautiful, amazing and wonderful place.”

Today they are raising Bella, with the help of Tucker, in a beautiful two bedroom, two-bathroom home on an acre of land on Buttercup Road.