‘Now, we can grow.’ Two Idaho families move into homes with help from nonprofit

To Victoria Toomey, the prospect of one day owning a house felt like a pipe dream.

The 29-year-old single mother of two had been “bouncing around, home to home,” she said, eventually landing in a cramped, two-bedroom apartment where she slept on a couch while her young children took the bedrooms. After facing cancer, a divorce and stints living out of her car, homeownership seemed far-fetched at best.

That is, until now.

Toomey, alongside couple Rachel Tayler and Aidan Law, were given keys to their new homes on Wednesday from nonprofit First Story at a ceremony hosted in Caldwell. In partnership with developer Hayden Homes, the organization sells homes to families through mortgages without a down payment or interest, targeting those who could not typically afford a house at market price.

“This is something that I genuinely never thought I’d be able to provide for my kids,” Toomey said in an interview. Owning a home, she added, “means more to me than anything else we’ve ever been through.”

For Tayler, 23, and Law, 25, getting a house is similarly transformative. Speaking in front of a crowd of dozens at the event, Law said that he and Tayler had been scouring for “any opportunity we could have to find a home,” even as both worked and raised a child.

Living with an infant daughter and a dog while hoping to grow their family left the couple feeling “trapped by our circumstances,” Tayler later said in an interview. “That feeling of not being able to grow is so oppressive.”

But now, owning a house in Caldwell through First Story, “it feels like that gateway is opened up,” she added. “Now, we can grow.”

The two families are far from the first to receive homes from the nonprofit: There are five houses in Caldwell that First Story has sold and 14 across the Treasure Valley, according to Jodelle Marx, a spokesperson for the group.

Boise Planning and Zoning Commission chair Chris Danley, who presented the families with ceremonial keys to their new houses alongside officials from First Story and Hayden Homes, praised the role of nonprofit groups in tackling the region’s affordability crisis.

“It can’t just be about government,” Danley said in an interview after the event. “It has to be multiple parties pulling in the same direction.”

Both families at the event on Wednesday were sold houses in Caldwell which were fully refurbished, according to Alissa Wood, a spokesperson for Hayden Homes.

Providing Treasure Valley residents with paths to owning their own homes is a crucial way to help ensure that residents can weather soaring rents and costs of living, Danley said.

“Any time we have an opportunity for people to actually take ownership of something,” he added, “we’re going to try our hardest to make that happen.”