Boise’s largest affordable housing project yet opens on the Bench

Nearly 200 new affordable homes are opening close to downtown Boise, bolstered by $6.7 million in city funding.

The Denton Street Apartments on the Bench are the city’s largest affordable housing project to date, with 191 units earmarked for residents making up to 80% of the area median income, or AMI. Nineteen of those will be set for Our Path Home to rent to families exiting homelessness, according to the city.

Within the Denton block, 34 units are set to be affordable at 30% AMI, 34 at 50% AMI, 56 at 60% AMI and 67 at 80% AMI. Per city data, that translates to earnings between $22,500 and $59,950 for an individual or between $32,100 and $85,600 for a family of four.

Six out of every 10 households earning less than 80% of the area median income are housing-cost burdened, meaning that they pay more than 30% of their gross pay on housing costs, according to the city spokeswoman Maria Ortega. That’s about 30,000 Boise households.

“Professions such as car technicians and mechanics, bus and truck drivers, nursing assistants, EMTs, janitors, security guards and/or childcare workers are some of the people who you’ll find earning 80% AMI or less here in Boise,” Ortega told the Idaho Statesman in an email.

The building is on a formerly vacant lot at 6160 W. Denton St., south of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center and adjacent to Liberty Park. It also sits along bus routes that service West Emerald Street.

The city partnered with Eagle-based multifamily housing developer The Pacific Cos.; Boise-based Hawkins Cos., which owns the land; and the Idaho Housing and Finance Association to build the apartments. The public contribution included $6.7 million from the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program, a COVID-era fund that allowed local governments to put a portion of grants toward permanent housing options.

“We like to support cities, and their leadership, that support affordable housing,” Katie Callen, a spokesperson for The Pacific Cos., said in an email. “The Treasure Valley is our home, so it was a natural fit to pursue this project. The city of Boise provided financial resources and was immensely helpful by effectively and efficiently processing the land use approval.”

The $42 million building is made up of 43 studios, 79 one-bedroom, 51 two-bedroom, and 20 three-bedroom apartments, Callen said. The first floor is onsite parking, with four stories of residential units above. The design also includes a community room, fitness area, bike storage, a playground, and picnic areas in a central courtyard.

Applications and leasing are managed by Tomlinson & Associates. The Pacific Cos. did not disclose the rents for the property, though the city offers affordable rent guidelines for its projects online. The real estate websites Redfin and Zillow both list studios starting at $879, one bedrooms at $940, two bedrooms at $1,127 and three bedroom, two-bath apartments starting at $1,302. Actual prices depend on the income of an eligible applicant.

The median rent citywide stood at $1,264 per month in November after falling 1.8% from a month prior, according to the rental listing website Apartment List.

About a quarter of the apartments are occupied, Callen said, with more families scheduled to move in soon.

The Denton Street project dates at least to 2022, the Idaho Statesman reported at the time. Months before, the city of Boise published a Housing Needs Analysis that found that the city has not kept up with a growing demand for new housing. According to the analysis, the city needs to build 2,773 homes every year until 2031 to meet demand. Boise had missed that mark by over 4,100 during the three years before the study, the Statesman reported in 2024.

The Liberty Park Neighborhood Association opposed the project in 2022, the Statesman reported. At the time, members told the Boise Planning and Zoning Commission that 76% of the neighborhood’s residents were already low-income, the highest share in Boise, with a median household income of about $35,000. About three-quarters are renters as it was, and predominance of studios and one-bedrooms made the design a poor fit for neighborhood residents, they said.

But Shellan Rodriguez, a consultant representing the developers, called the site is as good as any in Boise.

“If we can’t do dense, affordable housing here, I don’t know where else we could do it,” she told the P&Z Commission.

Including the Denton Street apartments, the city has now built some 600 affordable units since 2020, with another 300 in the pipeline, Ortega said.

“Public-private partnerships like this one make it possible for developers to build quality homes and rent them at more affordable rates,” Ortega said.

This story was originally published December 8, 2025 at 2:19 PM.