Boise’s newest affordable housing for seniors has a familiar address

Shari St. George’s life had shrunk to the size of her bedroom.

Two decades after moving to Boise, she had lost her husband, her half-acre home and, most recently, her health. As she convalesced in assisted living, St. George looked for a way back, and found few options in a booming Boise.

For now, St. George lives in student housing downtown. She’s looking for part-time work. It’s a start. But she has four young roommates. And approaching a year in, rents are already slated to rise.

“I’m doing better,” she told the Idaho Statesman. “I’ve grown my life.”

Soon, her life will get bigger still, in a space of her own.

St. George signed a lease to become one of the first residents of Sycamore Commons, a senior-housing development on a shade-strewn street in west Boise’s Collister neighborhood.

On Tuesday, St. George helped cut the ribbon on the new affordable complex at 3115 N. Sycamore Drive, opening 53 apartments for residents 55 and older — with another 30 on the way.

The project is the latest from Leap Housing, an Idaho nonprofit that builds and preserves homes for people who need an affordable place to live — people like St. George.

“I want to be in a community,” she said. “I want to live in a neighborhood. I just feel like this is home. And I feel blessed.”

The $9.8 million first phase of the project retrofitted the shuttered Good Samaritan Society’s Boise Village. The skilled nursing facility closed in 2021 when the federal government canceled its contract after inspectors said it failed to meet compliance standards during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Idaho Statesman reported at the time.

“Many in our community recognize this address because they visited a loved one here,” Leap founder and CEO Bart Cochran said Tuesday. “This site has community care built right into its soil.”

Leap purchased the property in January 2025. It’s now open more than two months ahead of schedule, thanks to a fast-tracked process Boise offers to “priority” housing projects, as well as the by-right development procedure granted to the location under Boise’s modernized zoning map, Cochran said — “living proof that the new zoning code does work.”

“The city of Boise answered all my calls and email,” Leap Housing development analyst Ben Rees said. “But more importantly, they’re committed to affordable housing, and they back it up.”

Boise didn’t put money toward the project, Cochran said. Leap received roughly $5 million in tax-credit financing through the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, a quasi-governmental agency that administers several federal affordable-housing programs in the state. Another $1 million came from donors.

Phase one features 18 studios and 35 one-bedroom apartments. It’s a mixed-income project: six units are market rate, 41 are earmarked for people making up to 60% of Boise’s area median income ($46,500 for an individual, per city guidelines) and six are for people living on less than 30% of area median income ($23,250). A second phase aims to add another 30 apartments in two other wings of the old nursing home; construction is scheduled to start on those units later this month, Cochran said.

Sycamore Commons is now taking applications for residents.

With its wide, rail-lined halls and single-story floorplan, the building “screams senior housing” and was “ripe for conversion” for full-time residents, Cochran said. Reusing the property saved time and money, while also delivering options to Boiseans on a fixed income who are particularly squeezed by rising costs.

“In a hot city like Boise, when prices grow up, that group is much more vulnerable,” he said.

Many senior developments are full, including nearby Samaritan Village on Collister Drive. St. George applied for a spot before discovering Sycamore Commons, only to find herself 31st on the waitlist.

“As we talk to prospective residents, we constantly hear how grateful they are that places like this exist,” said Eric Cornforth of Somerset Pacific Property Management, which is leasing the property. “Affordable housing isn’t always convenient, but things we need usually aren’t”