A Disappearing Home
Nearly two million people worldwide live without adequate housing, a crisis fueled by economic expansion and growing inequality. In Teton County, America’s wealthiest and most economically unequal county, the working class fueling the economy is quickly disappearing due to housing shortage.
The goal of this long-term project, A Disappearing Home, is to illustrate how this crisis affects Teton County’s entire working class, no matter their cultural background.
This project began in 2020, and currently continues in development. Since the pandemic, Lina has documented dozens of working-class residents, focusing on how this chronic instability affects their mental and physical health, family structures, community ties, education, and upward mobility.
November 2022. Romero Family spends a Saturday enjoying their free time. Marely, 8, colors while her older brother, Diego, 16 reads his book for school. Maria, 34, cleans and tries to organize her deteriorating home. Their landlord has not restored their trailer and continues to increase their rent year after year. Wyoming is one of the states with the least amount of protections for tenants.
June 2023. Mara, 39, nurse and Doug, 39, physical therapist, rent a three-bedroom home in town with their two daughters, Olivia, 2, and Sierra, 4. Mara gets ready for work, while prepping her daughters for the day. Mara works as a nurse in an OR as well as at the local urgent care clinic. She also works part time at the clinic in Teton Village. About 25% of the nurses who work with Mara live in Teton County. From those who live here, most are in unstable housing where they continue to bounce from one situation to another.
September 2021. Kate, 33, works at the Teton County Public Health Department and has been living in Jackson, Wyoming for many years, but like many other homes, her house was put on the market. Kate and her three roommates had to move out with very little affordable housing options and thus became one of the many locals who said goodbye to Teton County. At the time Kate left in 2021, there were 182 job postings in the local newspaper with five apartments or rooms listed for rent, all with rent over $2k.
March 2023. Isabel, 44, Samantha, 11, Angel, 10, and Ana, 8, play "Lobo" with the elders of the family. Isabel and Samantha live in their 3-bedroom trailer home with seven other family members.
January 2022. John, 41, works as a freelance contractor and lives in a studio apartment on top of the garage of a wealthy resident's ranch. After moving three times in two years, this was his only option in order to be able to stay near his community of over 20 years.
August 2023. Raymundo, 49, works as a painter for a locally-owned business. He is part of a 33-person construction team building this vacation, second home. Raymundo lives in a two bedroom apartment in one of the county’s five largest apartment complexes. Rents across all complexes increased 60% in one year, tightening the strain on local families and costing over 55% of Gaby and Raymundo's monthly income in rent.
April 2023. Samantha, 11, Vanessa, 14, and Angel, 10, enjoy a few quiet moments in Samantha's trailer home before heading to church for their first communion. Because they live in Jackson, other family members often come and go. Samantha's home has a surplus of beds, sofa beds and bunk beds to make room for everyone, and have space in case a family member needs to avoid long, dangerous commutes into town from the outskirts.
February 2021. At a summer camp in 2021, Gael was asked to draw his home, pictured here. The Robles family consists of Gael, 7, Mia, 16, Mateo, 10 and Riana, 40 and have been living in Jackson for 16 years. They live in a studio apartment with two beds and costs 50% of Riana's income in rent. Riana works as a housekeeper for a hotel in town.
July 2023. Edith, 43, and Chema, 44, moved to Jackson in 2001. They have four children, three sons and one daughter. Edith cooks alongside her entire family at the Teton County Fair. They've been working 12 hour days for nearly one week to cook as extra income to offset Jackson's high living costs. Currently, Edith and her husband live in a small, 3-bedroom apartment with their two youngest children, and continuously search for cheaper housing and space. The family has moved four times in four years. Each time has been due to small living circumstances for the family, high rent or to live closer to family, in town. During the four years of moving and finding a place, for an entire summer, they lived on a relative’s couch.
February 2021. Edith, 43, and Chema, 44, moved to Jackson in 2001 and currently work in a local fast-food restaurant and live in Alpine, Wyoming, 45 minutes away. Every morning, they begin their commute at 3am to drop off their children with relatives to wait for the school bus and get to work. They have already totaled one car while commuting through dangerous conditions during winter, due to wildlife crossings at night. Alpine, Wyoming has been the closest, most affordable rent they have been able to find. Edith and Chema continue to search every day for an affordable rental closer to work and famiily.
March 2022. Isabel, 44, has two jobs, working in a fast food restaurant and baking cakes. Her husband works as an Uber driver in town. Isabel bakes five cakes in one day with the help of her daughter, Samantha, 11 and her two nephews. Each order is a family effort.
September 2021. Kate, 33, worked at Teton County Public Health for about a year until her rental was sold and she had to leave. For three months she could not find a rental for an affordable rate with a decent space so she had no choice but return to her home state in Washington.
June 2023. Doug, 39, physical therapist, searches for dinner to leave defrosting while he and his wife go to work. One day a week, Doug prepares the girls for the day on his own, while Mara takes early shifts at work. Doug work 35-40 hours a week and has two jobs, one full-time and one part-time. As Doug shared, “Trying to stay afloat financially and save while trying to balance work and family is hard. Especially with the reality that we need to make more money, and the only way to make more money is to work more. Wages are not going up with the rate of our local inflation in Jackson. That is pretty hard.”
April 2023. Isabel, 44, and her daughter Samantha, 11, get ready for her first communion in their trailer home. Because they live in Jackson, other family members often come and go. Isabel’s home has a surplus of beds, sofa beds and bunk beds to make room for everyone, and have space in case a family member needs to avoid long, dangerous commutes into town from the outskirts. "I'm never alone in this house. Family is always around, trying to make it work. I can't say 'no' to anyone needing help or a place to sleep," said Isabel.
February 2023. Anna, 31, moved to Jackson in 2015 to work as an educator. For the last 4.5 years, she worked at the JH Children’s Museum. Anna moved 11 times in eight years, most due to rent increases or houses sold. In March, she joined the countless who have left the valley. As Anna shared, “the ability to choose is what is being taken away. I am being forced to leave, not choosing to leave.”
December 2023. Maria, 34, and Marely, 8, wait for the school bus three days before Holiday Winter Break began. Maria and her children live in front of the bus stop, a 3-bedroom trailer home in the most industrious side of town.
November 2022. Romero Family have lived in Jackson for over 25 years, and struggle with rising rental rates every year with no other housing options. In three years, their carpet has flooded two times and there is no repair in sight. Maria, 34, places as many of their valuables on the wall or on the kitchen counter for protection from flooding.
March 2022. Edith, 43, and her daughter, 14, commute every day for at least 40 minutes through a dangerous pass to leave Vanessa with a relative and get to work at 4am. Today, they are enjoying a quiet breakfast on their only day off from work and school.
July 2023. Every year, Maria's, 34, rent has increased, to where she now pays over 70% of her income in rent. Diego, 16 and Marely, 8, go with her every weekend to avoid being home alone and paying for child care. On the lower-end, childcare costs approximately $1,500 a month per child, and options with availability are slim with long waiting lists.
July 2024. Gaby 40, came to Jackson in 2016, before her husband, Raymund. In 2011, they had Shania, 11. Gaby and Shania play with 3D puzzles during their structured Sunday family time. They live in a two bedroom apartment in one of the county’s five largest apartment complexes. Rents across all complexes increased 60% in one year, tightening the strain on local families and costing over 55% of Gaby and Raymundo's monthly income in rent.
August 2023. Raymundo, 49, works as a painter for a locally-owned business. He is part of a 33-person construction team building this vacation, second home.
August 2023. Gaby, 40, has worked as an assistant busser and food preparer for 14 years at a restaurant popular with tourists and locals. Gaby, her husband and daughter, have moved within the county six times all due to rent increases. "If we lose our house, we won't be able to stay in Jackson," he said.
August 2024. Gaby and her daughter Shania enjoy their day off together paddle-boarding at a park near their home. “Being so close to nature is one of the main reasons we still make Jackson work, and choose to continue living here. The other reason is being so close to family,” said Gaby, who lives in the same county as her siblings. Because nearly all the land in Teton County is federally-owned and protected, the biggest problem for Jackson's 22,000 residents is space.
August 2024. Shania, 11, enjoys their day off at Rendevous Park, paddle-boarding. Shania attends middle school as a sixth grader, and says most of her friends live in very challenging housing circumstances. Currently, about 50% of school district employees live outside of Teton County, Wyoming. During an average snow storm many crucial employees, like teachers, are not able to make it to work due to snow closures at the county's mountain pass and canyon, the only two entry points into Teton County, Wyoming.
Interviews
Each participant was asked the same six questions sharing their own challenges around housing, in their preferred language. Click the thumbnails below to listen to their interview highlights.
The full interviews of the project can be found here.
Exhibitions
Teton County Library. Filmed by Zach Montes, Orijin Media
Teton County Library, September 18 - November 15, 2023
Tayloe Piggott Gallery, December 5, 2023
This project was exhibited for the first time at our county library where it was easily accesible to our entire community, written in both Spanish and English. It also received a second one-day exhibit at a prestigious, local gallery as part of a fundraiser event for affordable housing with the Community Housing Trust. Some photos of the project were also exhibited at a fundraiser for affordable housing with Teton Habitat for Humanity.
Within the exhibit, Lina illustrates some of the individuals and families of our working class population who are part of this project and face housing instability to illustrate the large diversity of who we are at risk of losing. Throughout the exhibit, Lina dives deeper illustrating their stories and housing circumstances. QR codes will direct viewers to a clip of their audio interviews so people can be heard in their own voice, adding a layer of intimacy that will further humanize this issue. Four quotes highlight the exhibit, two in Spanish and two in English taken from the interviews.
The exhibit was supported by the Wyoming Arts Council and JH Public Art, Arts for All Grant.
Tayloe Piggott Gallery. Photos taken by (right to left) Graham Koten and Joey Sackett.
Community Involvement
Exhibit Reception, September 18, 2023 at Teton County Library. Attended by 100+ community members.
Fundraiser Event for JH Community Housing Trust.