Ada County, Boise leaders clashed over homelessness. They’ve just come together over this
Despite different philosophies about homelessness, the Ada County Commission and Boise City Council decided to come together to pursue a common interest: provide housing for struggling residents.
The commissioners believe the roots of Boise’s homelessness problem are addiction and mental health challenges. They want to focus on providing housing for people in addiction recovery programs. The City Council says its research shows the reason many Boise residents are struggling to find housing is a lack of affordable and available housing.
“A lot of our strategy has been increased housing stock for that reason,” said Holly Woodings, former Boise City Council member, during a joint meeting about housing with the commissioners in January.
The two governing boards have clashed over the approaches. But now they agree that a partnership is needed to address the problem.
On Tuesday, the commissioners authorized spending $4.5 million in federal funds to help the city build an affordable housing project.
The commissioners say they are providing housing to people who may be in addiction recovery and need an affordable home, and the city gets to add to its stock of affordable housing.
“This is (an) example of us working together with Boise to address issues facing Ada County,” Commissioner Tom Dayley said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Where is the money coming from?
The city is trying to meet its goal to build 1,250 homes for low income residents. In the partnership with the county, it plans to add 250 affordable apartments on Boise’s West Bench.
In September 2022, the City Council voted to buy nearly two acres off Fairview Avenue, just east of Cole Road, at 1505 N. McKinney Lane and 1500 N. Eldorado St.. The city bought the property for $2.75 million and plans to lease it to Utah developer J. Fisher Cos., which would build the apartment complex.
At least half of the 250 units would be dedicated to tenants who make 60% or below the area median income. In Boise, 60% of AMI is $37,440 for a single person, $42,780 for a family of two and $53,460 for a family of four, according to the city.
The project, called the McKinney Project, would also dedicated 10% of the 250 units to Our Path Home tenants exiting homelessness. The homes would also prioritize tenants with Section 8 vouchers, which are housing vouchers funded by the federal government that pay for some of a participating family’s rent, with the family or individual responsible for the difference in the actual rent and the subsidized rent.
Jill Youmans, spokesperson for the city, said officials anticipate 200 of the 250 units to be dedicated to tenants at or below 60% of AMI.
According to the city, affordable rent for a single person earning 60% of AMI is $936. Affordable rent for two people earning 60% of AMI or less is $1,070 and for four people is $1,337.
The county money comes from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
The county is required by the federal government to allocate 75% of that program’s dollars to affordable housing. The county already has spent some of that by providing financial assistance to eligible households through the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities. The commissioners decided to allocate the remaining $4.5 million to the housing development.
Youmans said the city plans to dedicate $5 million of its own budgeted funds to the project, whose estimated total construction cost is $69 million.
J. Fisher is required under the contract with the city to secure financing for the project. Some of that could be federal low income housing tax credits, which are a dollar-for-dollar federal tax liability reduction for owners of newly constructed or substantially rehabilitated rental housing. But J. Fisher does not appear to have yet applied for the tax credits through Idaho Housing and Finance Association for 2024. A call to the company was not immediately returned.
McKinney expected for be ‘accessible, affordable’
The property is located near transit stops on Fairview Avenue, the city said in its resolution to purchase the property, “which presents an opportunity for an accessible affordable housing project.” The apartments would also be located near an Albertsons on Fairview.
The property is now the site of an office building.
In 2021, the commissioners took criticism from the city and residents when they decided to pull some funding from New Path Community Housing. During the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Ryan Davidson wanted to make sure the public understood that the county would be partnering with the city to build the affordable housing complex.
“We are pleased we were able to successfully negotiate sufficient terms to make this an enduring project to benefit the community,” Commissioner Rod Beck said in an email.
Fisher is working on another affordable apartment complex in Boise. The complex, Moda Franklin, at Franklin Road and Orchard Street is under construction. It, too, is expected to serve tenants who make 60% or less of the area median income. The city also owns that land where the Moda is being constructed and leased it to Fisher.
Just a mile or so from the Franklin project, another developer plans to build another affordable housing complex. The Pacific Cos., of Eagle, plans to build a 201-unit apartment complex for tenants making 60% or less of the area median income.
The apartments would be at 6160 W. Denton St., catty-corner from Liberty Park and just south of West Emerald Street, where a Valley Regional Transit bus line runs and near Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.
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