City wants to hear about your housing issues as it decides where to put ARPA funding
The city of Boise has kicked off its first round of “neighborhood listening sessions” on how to address the local housing crisis.
The city’s housing team leaders say they want to meet with residents to hear first-hand how the issue of housing affordability has affected them and their neighbors. Over the coming months, the city plans to hold a number of similar community discussions focused on finding ways to ensure people of all income levels can afford to live in Boise.
“With this first round, our hope is really to hear from the community directly,” Lana Graybeal, senior communications manager, said. “It will provide an opportunity for us to work together and for us as the city staff to hear what’s happening in the community and how housing affordability affects residents.”
That first round consists of four public meetings. Attendees can share stories of the housing issues they are facing or provide solution ideas.
The second meeting was held Tuesday evening at Kristin Armstrong Park. About a dozen people met at the park shelter and took turns sharing their thoughts. City employees wrote them down on a large notepad. Attendees brought up issues around zoning, disconnects between landlords and renters, the lack of safety in homeless shelters and the need for low-income housing in more varied places in the city.
One attendee, Celia Harrison, described how difficult it can be for those who are homeless. She suggested that the city needs short-term solutions as it works on long-term solutions. Harrison would like to see designated places for people living in their vehicles to park.
“I was living in my minivan,” Harrison said. “There was nowhere to park it and police were awful. Homeless shelters are not very safe.”
Once the community discussions are complete, the city plans to use the ideas gathered to create a public report. Once they have a better understanding, there will be a second set of meetings set up to “workshop with the community” on how to address them.
The third step in these housing meetings will involve looking at individual neighborhoods to find low-barrier solutions.
“We’ll be working on a workshop to say, ‘OK, here’s what we know we have available to us, how can we do this in the different neighborhoods?’” Graybeal said. “What are some other tools that we can look into that are lower barrier that don’t require state or federal funding that the city can optimize for workflow?”
The report will be used on a more large-scale to make decisions on how best to spend American Rescue Plan funds on Boise housing and what statewide issues should be brought to legislators as they prepare for the upcoming Legislative session.
There are two meetings left in this first round of community housing discussions. The next will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20, through Zoom. The last meeting will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27, at Library! at Hillcrest at 5246 W. Overland Rd.
Residents can also share opinions on housing through a survey on the city’s website the city’s spending of American Rescue Plan funds. City leaders plans to spend APRA funds on five primary issues: Housing availability and affordability, mental health, food security, small business support and child care.
“We’ve identified those five buckets,” Graybeal said. “The next step is to talk to service providers and things like that to figure out what is happening in underserved communities that we can help impact with this once in a lifetime funding.”
Sally Krutzig covers Treasure Valley growth and development. Have a story suggestion or a question? Email Krutzig at skrutzig@idahostatesman.com.
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