Boise-area developer proposes to double city’s housing for the most severely homeless
With homelessness a growing concern in Boise, the city wants to build more long-term apartments for people experiencing the area’s most severe cases of homelessness. One company has proposed a project that would more than double the number of living unit as soon as next year Eventually the city wants to increase its current number by more than 600%, or 500 units. For now, Boise has just two such apartment projects: the 26-unit Valor Pointe at 4203 W. State St, which provides apartments to homeless veterans; and the 40-unit New Path, at 2200 W. Fairview Ave.
Theses types of apartments, known as permanent supportive housing, come with special in-house services like health services, addiction treatment, case managers and life skills education. Residents of New Path, for example, spent years without a place to live. Most have substance-abuse issues, mental health concerns or chronic medical problems. The Pacific Cos. an Eagle-based affordable housing developer, has filed documents with the city proposing to built a second New Path building on an empty adjacent lot it owns at 2216 W. Fairview Ave.
It would add 100 apartments, 34 parking spaces and 100 bicycle spaces. The proposal includes a community room, fitness room, enclosed private courtyard, second story terrace, offices for supportive services staff and an on-site manager’s living unit. BOISE SETS HOUSING GOAL The Pacific Cos. owns the first New Path property as well. That $7 million project was built with significant help from more than 20 private and community partners, including $1 million from the city of Boise and $500,000 from the Idaho Housing and Finance Association. The company hopes these partners will once again step in to build the expansion. Though no one has officially committed yet, the city seems interested. Boise planning staff members recently determined that the city is in need of 500 more permanent supportive housing units. This expansion could count toward their goal of adding the first 250 in the next five years. “The city of Boise is really enthusiastic about the opportunity to partner here, because this is kind of an example of the housing diversity that we know that we need to see in our neighborhoods to make sure that there’s a home for everyone,” said Casey Mattoon, manager of the public-private partnership focused on ending homelessness in Ada County known as Our Path Home. “But that partnership on our end is yet to be determined.”
The city’s interest is due partly to the proposal’s potential cost-saving value. While those who are chronically homeless make up about 15% of the total homeless population, they account for more than 80% of all homeless-related costs, according to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Getting chronically homeless people into housing drastically reduces dollars spent by the community, according to a study by the Idaho Policy Institute at Boise State University. The institute examined records from the three years before New Path’s opening to calculate how much the average New Path resident cost the city. Considering jail time, paramedic services, mental health and substance abuse services, emergency room care, in-patient hospital stays and arrest costs, the study found that each resident of New Path had cost the community an average of $77,108 per year before receiving housing. During a resident’s first year at New Path, that cost fell to $25,763. PACIFIC COS. HELPING LEAD AFFORDABLE HOUSING EFFORTS The Pacific Cos. is a privately held group of firms that builds affordable and market-rate multifamily housing and charter schools. It has more than 100 workforce or mixed-income developments across eight Western states. It’s working on building affordable apartments on the site of the former Smoky Davis meat shop at at 3912 W. State St. after winning a contract with the city. When it comes to how the company is able to keep projects like New Path afloat, it is awarded federal tax credits by the Idaho Housing and Finance Association that it then sells to investors, according to The Pacific Cos. Executive Denise Carter.
“It is somewhat profitable, but it’s not like the market-rate housing where it’s driven by revenue,” Carter said. Executives at The Pacific Companies have long been involved in local housing issues. Carter serves on the executive committee of Our Path Home. Carter said she wants to help address Boise’s homeless problem before it gets worse. “We’ve been doing this for about 24 years, and our offices have always been in Idaho, but the majority of what we do is in California,” Carter said. “So to be able to provide affordable housing to people in our backyard is a win for us.” The New Path expansion proposal is still in its earliest stages. The next steps, according to Carter, are applying for financing and getting partners on board. Carter said The Pacific Cos. team is optimistic and hopes to begin construction by the end of the year.
Original article from Idaho Statesman 04/14/2022. By Sally Krutzig.
https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/community/boise/article259882520.html
