New report offers solutions to Boise’s housing shortage
View of Boise downtown and Idaho Capitol on a fine autumn morning as seen from Capitol Blvd, Boise, Idaho, USA
BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — Boise needs to build 13,000 homes in order for every person here to have adequate housing that’s safe, livable and affordable. That’s according to a new report from the non-profit Up for Growth.
“We should care that people have the ability to thrive and have adequate housing at the same time,” said Janessa Chastain, the director of Boise Valley Habitat for Humanity.
About 45 percent of the people in Boise spend more than a third of their income on where they live.
“If you’re paying that much toward your rent, it means that anything that comes up unexpectedly, that is your car breaking down, your kid getting sick, somebody getting furloughed, whatever it is, it becomes not just an inconvenience, it becomes a situation that could result in you losing your housing,” Nicki Hellencamp, Boise mayor’s housing advisor said.
Up for Growth says there should be a combination of high and moderate-density housing.
“You need multifamily housing. You need apartment units and townhouses, but you also need single-family homes. That those are still necessary in order to meet the needs of the different types of families that are living here and are moving here,” Chastain said.
The report says there also needs to be more units near the downtown area close to where people work.
“Ideally not as many people have to own a car, or not as many people have to own multiple cars or drive as much,” Tim Keane, the city of Boise’s Planning and Development Services Director said.
The report shows outdated zoning rules from more than 50 years ago make it especially hard to build enough affordable units.
“Before Zoning in Boise and most cities, we built a whole variety of residential buildings,” Keane said. “We kind of shifted that to there’s a single-family house and there’s the big apartment building and that’s it. There’s nothing in between.”
City officials are trying to make updates to that code now.
“So that we’ve got the ordinance itself allowing a greater diversity of housing, so you’ve got small houses, big houses, you’ve got duplexes, small apartment buildings, big apartment buildings,” Keane said.
Boise is already building affordable units on land it owns. A new project at Franklin and Orchard is going up now. The city will lease the land with an assurance of affordability for at least 50 years for that property. The city is also looking to purchase land for the purpose of building affordable housing.
“Your rent will be based on your income. There isn’t going to be a situation where your rent jumps 200 percent overnight, or we’re not going to have the same kinds of fluctuations that you see in market-rate units,” Hellencamp said.
City officials hope Boise can eventually become an example for other cities struggling with the same problem.
The city of Boise’s planning department wants to know what you think about their proposed zoning code updates.
The last in-person open house is on Thursday, July 28 at 6 p.m. at the Quail Hollow golf course clubhouse.
