One answer to Boise’s affordable-housing woes? The Rescue Mission just offered this
The Boise Rescue Mission plans to open its 58 transitional housing apartments on the Boise Bench for working residents who are at risk of homelessness.
The Rescue Mission, a faith-based nonprofit that runs homeless shelters and transitional housing in Boise and Nampa, was set to host a grand opening Saturday, April 27, for Next Step, a 58-unit apartment building on the Bench.
The apartments replace a former assisted-living building. The Rescue Mission has worked on renovating the building for the past two and a half years, according to a news release from the organization.
In a video tour of the Next Step transitional housing complex, the Rev. Bill Roscoe, president and chief operating officer of the Rescue Mission, said the apartments will be for tenants who have spent time in a homeless shelter program and want to move into a more- independent living situation.
“It’s a tough step from homelessness and shelter life back into the community,” Roscoe said. “And so this project will provide that next-step assistance that people need in order to make that transition smoothly and successfully.”
Tenants will not pay rent, Roscoe told the Idaho Statesman by phone, but instead will pay a program fee on a sliding scale. The scale starts at $0 for people who have no means to pay and goes up to $500 for people with two-bedroom apartments who can pay.
The program fee includes meals, case management and counseling, Roscoe said.
Roscoe and other housing advocates have said apartments built by private developers, even with help from the city of Boise, are costly and still too expensive for people exiting homelessness to afford. Roscoe offered his organization’s transitional living as one possible solution.
The apartments are studios and one- and two-bedroom units. There is a central commercial kitchen and dining room.
Roscoe said tenants will have breakfast and dinner in the dining room and have soup and sandwiches for lunch, with the ability to take sandwiches to go if they have day jobs.
The Boise Rescue Mission already operates about 50 transitional-living apartments throughout the valley, according to previous reporting by the Statesman.
“This addition will significantly expand our capacity to help people take an intermediate step from our emergency shelters toward independent living,” Roscoe said in the news release.
The director of Boise’s only other homeless shelter, Interfaith Sanctuary, has said Boise needs more transitional housing that people leaving homelessness can afford. Peterson-Stigers told the Idaho Statesman in December that transitional housing would be more like a college dorm than an apartment.
“The reason why they build college dorms is because it’s kids leaving their home for the first time,” Peterson-Stigers said then. “They’re not self-sufficient. They’ve had their mom and dad do their laundry. They have breakfast waiting at the table. Kids will stay for maybe a year or two on campus until they get their wings, and then they move into their own housing choice. That’s what I think about when I see my guests.”
The Boise Rescue Mission scheduled a grand opening and tours for The Next Step starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 27, at the apartment complex at 1777 S. Curtis Road.
This story was originally published April 27, 2024 at 4:00 AM.
