This family of six lived in a Boise-area attic. Here’s what they just got for Christmas.
Two days before Christmas, Jose Ballesteros pushed a key into a lock and opened the door to his family’s dream: a house to call their own.
Through the front window, his sons, 7-year-old Zeiyis, and Kashys, 5, spotted a welcome gift that caused the boys to point and shout.
“Look, we have a tree!” one of the boys said, pointing to a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments, colored lights and garland.
For a year and a half, the family, including mother Allee Ballesteros, and sister Hazel, 3, lived in an attic room at a house belonging to Jose’s mother in Meridian. Brother Niko joined the family nine months ago.
The family hoped they might get into their own place by Christmas, but they weren’t holding their breaths.
“There’s no way” that was going to happen, Allee thought. Yes, the family was on a waiting list for affordable housing offered through Leap Charities, but it didn’t seem likely they’d get to move anytime soon.
On Monday, the family received a telephone call letting them know they would get to rent a four-bedroom home in Windy Court, a four-home complex of houses built from shipping containers by Leap Charities last spring in Northwest Boise. A tenant had moved out, and the Ballesteros family qualified for it.
“It feels a little unreal,” Allee Ballesteros said, minutes after Jose put the key in the lock and opened the front door to the family’s new home in the 10000 block of Shields Avenue, off State Street and the Old Horseshoe Bend Highway. “This literally feels like a Hallmark movie.”
The family’s joy came after several tough years that began when doctors found a tumor in Hazel’s kidney. She was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer that formed in her adrenal glands. The glands produce hormones that control heart rate, blood pressure and other functions.
She underwent successful surgery at St. Luke’s Cancer Institute, formerly the Mountain States Tumor Institute, in Boise, and spent months undergoing treatment and recovery. Hazel’s cancer is in remission but she faces other health challenges caused by a lack of 67 genes. Her mother spent time away from the family to stay with Hazel, and her father cut back on his work hours to be at home with the boys.
Jose worked for a landscape company but later formed his own company, Snake River Landscape, to give him more flexibility in his hours. During the winter, he works for a friend on stucco, stone and painting projects.
The medical costs and the drop in Jose’s pay made it impossible to continue living in their rented two-bedroom condominium in Nampa. Jose’s mother let them live in her small upstairs room.
“She let us stay there, and we’re very thankful,” Allee said. “That allowed us to focus on Hazel and get through what we needed to do.”
On Monday, when the family drove into Windy Court, Kashys and Zeiyis were the first to get out.
Inside, Hazel pulled a bedroom door shut, opened it and stepped into the room before grabbing the handle and shutting the door again. Later, she pulled open a cabinet door, crawled in under the sink and closed the door so only her pink bunny slippers were visible.
The older boys opened kitchen cabinets and a door that hid a stacking washer and dryer. Then they checked out the bedrooms.
“That’s my room,” Kashys said after walking out of one.
Leap charges its renters $843 a month, which includes electricity, water, sewer and trash. Solar panels on the roof supply all the electricity that’s needed.
Eligible applicants must have household incomes of 30 percent or less of the area median income. For Ada County, 30 percent is $14,800 for one person, $16,900 for a couple, $20,780 for three people, $25,100 for a family of four and $29,420 for a family of five.
Bart Cochran, Leap’s CEO, said his nonprofit organization is working to develop a second fourplex next to Windy Court, with container homes made by Boise’s IndieDwell, which supplied the last ones. They’re expected to be ready next spring.
And Leap is buying another lot nearby that is planned for 14 additional homes made from shipping containers.
While Boise has a shortage of affordable housing, Cochran said Leap Charities’ efforts make a difference in the lives of the families they serve, including the Ballesteroses.
“It’s neat to give them the opportunity to be able to move in this close to Christmas,” he said.
The tree, gifts and other household items were provided by the Eagle Hills Golf Course and the Infinite Kindness charity. For 30 years, the golf course has held a Kris Kringle tournament where golfers make a donation in exchange for a free green fee the following year.
“I’m thrilled that we could bring a little Christmas joy to a family that hasn’t had a lot of joy in the last few years,” Christy Radcliffe from Eagle Hills said in an email.
Infinite Kindness founder Tara Dotson collected auction items from local businesses and raised the money used to buy bunk beds for the boys with Pokemon bedding and a trundle bed for Hazel with princess bedding. The family was also provided with $250 worth of groceries.
Looking around the home, Jose Ballesteros smiled and said that while his family has been through lots of ups and downs, they’ve tried to remain positive.
“We’re appreciative for the people helping up out,” he said. “Hopefully, one day we can pay it forward. This hasn’t been a good time for us, but it soon will be.”
This story was originally published December 24, 2019 at 12:58 PM.
