No ‘Hollow’ promise: Affordable housing gains steam at this North End trailhead

A low-income housing project just off the road to Bogus Basin is gaining traction thanks to a pack of powerful partners — and a swell of public money.

Named Blue Sky Commons, the development would bring 45 apartments to what’s now a parking lot immediately adjacent to the Harrison Hollow trailhead in Boise’s North End.

The pitch for 2600 N. Harrison Hollow Lane comes from The Housing Co., a nonprofit that serves as a stand-alone development arm of the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, a quasi-governmental agency that administers several federal affordable-housing programs in the state.. As planned, it would include 39 income-restricted apartments, five market-rate units and a place for the building manager, according to Jason Lantz, a spokesman for Housing and Finance and The Housing Co.

Building-wide, Blue Sky’s average rental cost would be affordable for tenants making 60% of Boise’s area median income or less — that’s $1,124 per month for an individual or $1,605 for a family of four, per Boise affordability guidelines. As proposed, about a third of the building would be earmarked for people making less, with units set aside for people earning as little as $22,500 per year, Lantz said.

The plan is still in its early days, and the cost breakdown could change as the process advances.

But the proposal gained a major boost in January when Idaho Housing and Finance awarded it up to $12 million over 10 years in federal tax credit financing. If approved through the city’s planning process, that money would join $1.45 million from the city of Boise to help the complex break ground.

City approval would also trigger the donation of the underlying land from Healthwise Inc., according to Melinda McGoldrick, senior manager in the city’s Housing and Community Development Department. Healthwise, a Boise nonprofit that formerly specialized in online health information, still has its headquarters building across Harrison Hollow Lane from the parking lot where Blue Sky would be built. But it sold its operating assets in 2024 to WebMD Ignite, which could not be immediately reached for comment.

Federal financing boosts affordable apartments

On Jan. 9, Idaho Housing and Finance awarded Blue Sky Commons a portion of the state’s allocation of competitive federal low-income housing tax credits .

The deal grants $1.2 million in credits each year for ten years. The developer then sells those credits to companies or investors looking to ease their tax liability and puts the proceeds toward construction. It’s unlikely The Housing Co. would get the full $12 million on the open market, and Lantz wasn’t privy to the going rate. But it means millions of dollars to launch the project, and, in accordance with federal law, guarantees that the building will have average rents affordable at 60% of AMI.

That’s a significant threshold to McGoldrick and her team. Boise has identified a gap in housing supply for residents earning 60% of AMI or below — $44,900 or less for an individual and $64,200 or less for a family of four. Those are the exact people the federal program is designed to reach, Lantz said.

“This is built for working families,” Lantz said. “The median income here is not that high — and it hasn’t kept up with the cost of housing.”

With that in mind, Boise conditionally awarded The Housing Co. $1.45 million last year to boost the project. The grant, which McGoldrick said would be structured as a favorable low-interest loan, effectively exhausted the city’s pool of “HOME” funds, which are allocated annually to the city through congressional appropriations.

Nationally, the Home Investment Partnerships Program is the largest federal grant mechanism to support low-income housing, and in Idaho the grants are extremely scarce: Boise is the only city in Idaho large enough to get a piece, and even then last year’s allocation only totaled around $650,000, McGoldrick said. Blue Sky’s loan represents several cycles spent accruing federal money for a competitive application.

“It’s a super important resource for us,” she said. “Here in Idaho, there are very few resources available to build affordable housing. We’re doing our best with very limited means to meet the need where the market isn’t stepping in.”

This year, the program granted Idaho $6.4 million in annual tax credits to award. Idaho Housing and Finance used a rubric to pick six winners from more than 20 applicants cumulatively seeking over $23 million in annual support.

The winners aren’t guaranteed the money, Lantz said; they must meet intermediate steps on the road to construction. And Blue Sky is still on that road. As of Thursday, The Housing Co. had not filed preliminary documents with city planners, McGoldrick said, though she remained positive on the project and the partnership.

“We know there’s a need for housing at all budgets,” she said, “and we’re always working on a lot of different fronts.”