Western housing advocates descend on Boise

Summit examines approaches to housing supply, affordability

ROYCE MCCANDLESS

rmccandless@idahopress.com

BOISE — Housing advocates and policy leaders from across the western U.S. stopped in Boise this week for the second year of the Welcoming Neighbors Network Mountain West Regional Gathering, a pro-housing summit.

The event was hosted by the recently formed Gem State Housing Alliance, a statewide housing advocacy organization, and brought together groups from nine states — including Alaska, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming — to discuss how best to navigate housing supply issues over the course of the two-day summit.

The key focus for the Alliance and the regional event as a whole was the role that simple changes to zoning code can play in providing housing that meets the needs of all households in a community.

“The idea is that zoning codes only allow for certain types and sizes of housing to get built, and we need to allow for all types and sizes of housing,” Ali Rabe, executive director of Gem State Housing Alliance, said, “and the only way to do that, the only way developers are going to build that, is if we make it legal.”

SCOPE OF THE NEED

According to a statewide zoning code analysis from the Gem State Housing Alliance, Idaho is short of demand by an estimated 55,000 homes.

The group posits the solution to this need doesn’t require state spending or new housing programs — it simply requires municipalities across the state to update their zoning codes and remove the barriers that prevent housing projects from getting off the ground.

The group’s analysis of 28 communities across the state found high parking requirements, minimum lot sizes and limited allowances for triplexes and fourplexes to be among the key zoning regulations “getting in the way” of new housing.

Though these issues persist across communities in Idaho, two key pieces of legislation passed the year, which will direct cities across the state to update their local zoning codes by February of next year, could prove integral to addressing several of these problems.

For cities with populations exceeding 10,000, Senate Bill 1352 will bar prohibitions on starter home subdivisions within residential zones, which are defined as subdivisions of four or more acres with lots less than or equal to 1,500 square feet.

Cities of this same population size will also no longer be able to ban accessary dwelling units in residential zones under Senate Bill 1354. Affected cities will need to allow at least one ADU per lot, allow them to be as large as 75% of the primary dwelling and not require additional parking in most circumstances.

While it remains to be seen how quickly these changes bear out in housing supply, what is known is that concerns over housing affordability remain widespread. According to an annual survey carried out by Idaho’s U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, affordability and supply remain prevailing concern among Idaho homeowners and renters.

The 2025 report that was released last week found 58% of renters earning between $4,000 and $7,000 a month reported spending more than 30% of their gross monthly income on housing. This was also found to be the case for about 24% of homeowners at the same income level.

Unsurprisingly, affordability and supply were among the key contributing to concerns over housing identified by respondents, and both were looking to be addressed by the advocates that were grappling with similar issues in their own states.

Karlee May, executive director of the Idaho District Council for the Urban Land Institute, said Boise was chosen as the location for this year’s conference due to there being a “willingness to try” a variety of housing solutions to address the state’s shortage.

This willingness was demonstrated over the course of a two-hour tour, where attendees were able to get a glimpse of some of the solutions adopted in the Treasure Valley in recent years to address affordability in ways that provided from one or two homes at a time to more than 100.

36 OAK DEVELOPMENT

A Garden City project from NeighborWorks Boise, a nonprofit housing group, served as the first stop in the tour and provided an example of the city’s approach to infill development — where new homes are constructed on land that is either vacant or underutilized within developed areas.

“Garden City is in a position where they can’t grow,” Bud Compher, CEO of NeighborWorks Boise, said, “so how do we make the best use of the dirt we have?”

The 24 homes within the 36 Oak subdivision served as an example of the organization’s “pocket neighborhoods,” a type of infill development with small homes that are centered around a shared green space. Compher said the development was based upon similar housing arrangements he had observed in Seattle.

Compher said the initial cost of the houses ranged from market rate, or above 120% of the area median income (AMI), to affordable, with targets as low as 30% AMI. (According to Boise’s affordable rent guidelines, the current values for a family of three equate to $2,989 and $748, respectively).

The subdivision also provided an example of how building with affordability in mind can go beyond the sticker price of the home. To avoid the extra flood insurance payment of $120 to $150 a month due to the area lying within a floodplain, Compher said each home was built a foot above the floodplain to provide further long-term cost savings to residents.

Construction of the first two homes for the subdivision began in 2015 — a time when Compher said the roughly 600-square-foot homes could be built for about $160,000. Due to rising prices in labor, land and materials, Compher said the same homes would require $350,000 to be constructed.

Despite the increase in costs, NeighborWorks’ projects are still ongoing. Their newest Boise development is the Cole Bluff Cottages, located at Cole and Fairview, which has 22 homes to the acre and was only required to have one parking space per unit for each of the 39 houses available — both of which were enabled by Boise’s 2023 zoning code overhaul that enabled denser housing development.

WILSON STATION

The group also toured the Wilson Station Apartments, which opened in August of last year and provided 102 affordable apartment units, ranging from studios to three-bedroom units, for individuals and families making between 30% and 80% AMI.

It is one of several apartment complexes that have gone up around the city in recent years through Boise’s housing land trust program, which leases city-owned property to developers to reduce costs and incentivize affordable housing development.

Owner of SMR Development Shellan Rodriguez said each of the units meeting affordability standards allowed for the project to benefit from the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), which provides tax credits to developers. Due to the building having two owners, Rodriguez said the project received what is known as the 9% credit and the 4% credit.

The 9% credit, which goes through a competitive application process, subsidizes about 70% of the project’s cost for 10 years while the 4% credit is automatically available to eligible properties and subsidizes about 30% of the costs for the same period.

Through a patchwork of developer contribution along with city, state and federal funding sources, Wilson Station received about $37 million in funding to help bring it to fruition, Rodriguez said.

“Yes in God’s Backyard” In other cases, housing groups in the area have pursued opportunities that allow for housing to be developed on a smaller scale. To address housing demand in the Treasure Valley, LEAP Housing, an Idaho-based housing nonprofit, has been working with churches to repurpose some of their land holdings for affordable housing.

In contrast to the sentiment of Not in My Backyard (NIMBY), a term ascribed to residents opposed to development in their area, LEAP has countered with the “Yes in God’s Backyard” (YIGBY) approach as a unique solution to the demand for housing.

This area of focus stemmed from a prior land study from LEAP which found Treasure Valley churches held more than 180 acres of underutilized land — greater than the acreage of the Boise State University campus, Brian Woodward, chief of staff for LEAP Housing, said.

This led to an agreement with Collister United Methodist Church in 2021, where the church agreed to lease a third of an acre to LEAP for 50 years at a cost of $1 per year. LEAP then built two three-bed, two-bath units on the land to families at rent equivalent to 30% AMI.

Since that agreement was forged, Woodward said six other churches have signed onto memorandums of understanding with LEAP to engage in similar pursuits.

Though these projects are small in scale, LEAP was able to see the completion of 637 housing units after shifting to focus on housing in 2016, as was previously reported by the Idaho Press.

Woodward said the aim of the group is to have 1,000 housing opportunities supported by the end of this year, even if it takes just one or two homes at a time.

Royce McCandless is the Statehouse reporter and covers Idaho politics. You can email him at rmccandless@ idahopress.com.

A group of more than 60 housing advocates and policy leaders came to Boise this week for a summit to discuss solutions to housing supply and affordability across the mountain west. Attendees stopped at the Wilson Station apartment complex Tuesday as an example of Boise’s recent affordable housing investments.

ROY

CE MCCANDLESS / IDAHO

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