Boise’s ‘Bermuda Triangle of housing,’ low wages add to homeless crisis. How to help
To solve homelessness in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, it’s going to take everyone.
That’s what panelists who work in the field told an online forum while discussing a range of topics related to homelessness, housing prices and what can be done to address these issues.
“Homelessness and housing are such complicated, complex issues that we all have to be at the table. It’s got to be public, it’s got to be private, it has to be all of us coming together and creating the will to move forward together,” said Stephanie Day, executive director of CATCH, a social service agency aiming to end family homelessness. “We have resources to be able to do it. It’s really just about: Do we have the will to do it together?”
Day, along with Boise Rescue Mission CEO and President the Rev. Bill Roscoe and Interfaith Sanctuary Executive Director Jodi Peterson-Stigers, spoke at Thursday’s forum hosted by the Idaho Statesman. They discussed the shortage of housing, the effects of that shortage and what can be done to stem the trend of increasing homelessness.
Shortage of housing supply
The waiting lists for affordable housing, Peterson-Stigers said, are often two to four years. En route to ending family homelessness in the Boise area, Day said CATCH’s goal is to reduce that time to two months. The lack of supply, rising prices and increasing demand have strained the system.
Roscoe pointed to Idaho’s growth. Higher demand has driven up prices and gobbled up the supply of housing. Even someone who may have been hired for a job and is ready to leave a shelter could have trouble finding an affordable place.
“That’s why the Rescue Mission has developed our own transitional living,” Roscoe said. He said the Rescue Mission has 50 apartments where people who previously stayed at the mission’s shelters can move toward independent living, and it is preparing 60 more in a former assisted-living center on Curtis Road.
New housing under construction will increase the supply of housing and might help people moving here, but its cost means it won’t help people who are coming out of homelessness, he said.
Day said that five years ago, CATCH’s clients — who are usually renting the cheapest possible units they can find — were paying $650 per month in rent in Ada County and $535 in Canyon County. Now, they’re paying $1,027 in Ada County and $1,008 in Canyon County.
Five years ago, Day said most CATCH clients earned $7.25 to $9 per hour. Now, they’re making $12 to $14 per hour. But the increase hasn’t kept pace with housing costs. Even if a single parent was making $15 per hour and netting $2,000 per month, that person would need to find rent for $600 per month or less to avoid being housing-cost-burdened.
“The housing market has skyrocketed and incomes have increased a little bit but not at the same rate that that housing has,” Day said. “So we’re kind of in this Bermuda Triangle of housing, things coming together to create a super-low vacancy rate and super-high rent rates.”
While the panelists said there’s no typical type of person who becomes homeless, they highlighted key demographics.
Day said people with lower incomes are often most likely to become homeless. Peterson-Stigers said elderly people and those on fixed incomes have been made increasingly vulnerable by rising housing costs. Roscoe said people who are most disconnected from family or social-support systems often make up newcomers to the Boise Rescue Mission.
“No one’s really immune to possibly experiencing homelessness,” Peterson-Stigers said.
What can you do to help?
To help address homelessness, Roscoe suggested supporting agencies like the Rescue Mission, CATCH and Interfaith Sanctuary. The Rescue Mission doesn’t receive government funding so its four shelters, two in Boise and two in Nampa, are powered by donations.
Day said homelessness is often misunderstood, so educating yourself about homelessness, and learning about what CATCH does and the people CATCH works with could affect how people view the topic.
“I think we could really shift the tide,” Day said, “if we could change the public perception about people experiencing homelessness.”
Peterson-Stigers encouraged people to volunteer with Interfaith Sanctuary, advocate for affordable housing by showing up at public meetings, and participate in programs like Boise’s tiny house pilot program or add an accessory dwelling unit on their property to help increase the housing supply. She also highlighted Leap Housing Solutions, which is another organization working to build affordable housing in the area by using donated land.
What can the government do to help?
Day acknowledged the Idaho Legislature’s history of not supporting possible housing solutions. She said the state government has a lot of power in what local municipalities can do. Rent caps, for example, are something she wouldn’t expect the state to allow.
“So probably our best bet unless things were to change at (the state) level would be to work on incentivizing folks to create affordable housing,” Day said.
She gave the example of providing an incentive for people who rent their home out as an AirBnb to convert that into a rental for someone to stay in full time.
Roscoe said he doesn’t believe in rent controls but that the government could foster support for construction of shelters and low-income housing by waiving fees.
Peterson-Stigers said a possible solution would be to vote for elected officials who support housing solutions.
“It’s not OK to just be like, ‘No, that doesn’t work for us,’ because it needs to be a statewide movement and then a county and then a city, we have to do this all together,” Peterson-Stigers said. “But we can’t just sit down and say it’s not possible because of our legislation, we have to really fight and vote and find leaders who will make this a priority.”
Peterson-Stigers said how zoning codes allowing a variety of housing types can play a key role in addition to laws that promote affordable housing. Adding more accessory dwelling units would make a big difference, she said. But many solutions come back to the state level.
“We need to build a state government,” Peterson-Stigers said, “that is thoughtful in the way in which they’re taking on and willing to take on these conversations.”
This story was originally published May 26, 2022 at 4:46 PM.
