Meridian’s first affordable-housing development in 20 years is opening. What residents say
The Wood Rose Apartments, set to open Dec. 3 in Meridian, are different than other apartment complexes you might have seen — or might soon see — in the city.
The affordable-housing development off Ustick Road has 46 apartments arranged in seven two-story buildings designed to resemble single-family homes. It’s Meridian’s first affordable-apartment complex “in many years,” according to Benjamin Cushman, a communications coordinator at the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, a quasi-governmental housing agency.
The 41 affordable units and five market-rate units offered at Wood Rose were envisioned by The Housing Co., a local nonprofit created by Idaho Housing and Finance. The development, approved by the Meridian City Council in 2022, was designed with goal of addressing housing shortages in the Treasure Valley.
The apartments are now almost complete at 3321 N. Cooper Lane, on less than four acres northeast of Ustick and Linder roads.
Federal funding for affordable rent
The affordable units at Wood Rose are reserved for people making between 30% and 60% of Meridian’s median income. The U.S. Census Bureau data puts Meridian’s median household income at just over $100,000.
Cushman told the Statesman via email that one-bedroom income-restricted apartments at Wood Rose range from $790 to $955 per month, and the same apartment is offered at market rate for $1,250 per month. Wood Rose also offers two- and three-bedroom apartments, also at below-market rates.
To be able to charge below market rates, The Housing Co. secured a $1 million low-income housing tax credit from the U.S. Treasury Department in 2023, according to Idaho Housing and Finance, which is responsible for allocating the credits in Idaho. This is Meridian’s first allocation in at least six years.
David Miles, Mayor Robert Simison’s chief of staff, told the Idaho Statesman that Wood Rose is the only affordable housing project he is aware of in the last 20 years, besides the recently approved, not-yet-built Centrepoint Apartments.
Cushman said the project was made possible by partnerships with “a mission-driver Realtor, Okhee Chang, who understood the importance of affordable housing”; financing from Red Stone Equity Partners, Banner Bank, and Idaho Housing and Finance; and cooperation from the city.
The result is the group of two-story buildings less than a mile west of Settlers Park, complete with a playground, a gym, a clubhouse with a business center, and 90 parking spaces.
Cushman said construction is still ongoing in phases. The first building was finished at the end of October and the last will be completed by mid-December, he said. Cushman confirmed via text that the project cost $12.4 million, including land, construction and permits.
Wood Rose started accepting applications early this summer, and at this point, 17 households have moved in, Cushman said.
“The remaining households will move in over the next month,” Cushman said. “All apartment homes are spoken for, but people can still apply to be on the waiting list.”.
Residents’ first impressions
Damian Hernandez, 48, was living in an another one of The Housing Co.’s properties before he moved into the Wood Rose apartments in mid-September. He told the Statesman he had been waiting for a year for Wood Rose to be built so he could be closer to work.
Hernandez works in distribution for Coca Cola and says he is glad to be in Meridian where often needs to be in-person at different large retailers.
Hernandez said in September he got this job and soon moved into Wood Rose. “Everything fell into place,” he said. He said the apartments are quiet, which is good for him — he wakes up at 4 a.m. for work. “It worked out perfect,” he said.
“It’s not as easy as people think to get in,” he said, describing the process The Housing Co. goes through to vet applicants.
Hernandez’s mother has worked for the nonprofit for several years, and Hernandez said it conducts extensive background and credit checks. To qualify, he said, you have to have good credit, no past evictions and no money owed to utility companies, for example.
“You have to be squeaky clean,” Hernandez said.
He said that with the Treasure Valley growing, his mother sees a lot of people seeking help with housing. “Everybody’s looking for a place to live,” he said.
“When it comes to low-income (housing), people tend to assume the worst of the people that live there,” one of Hernandez’s neighbors at Wood Rose, a mother in her early 30s, told the Statesman. The mother, who wished to remain unnamed, moved into Wood Rose in early November with her husband, who repairs appliances for a living, and their 7-year-old son, who has autism.
“We’re just people trying to pay our rent,” the mother said.
She and her husband say they have been “blown out of the water with the quality” of the apartment.
Other neighbors in Wood Rose include a 39-year-old man who works at a nearby gas station and receives support from Social Security for a disability. The man, who also wished to remain unnamed, said he had moved back in with his parents this spring after attending business classes in Logan, Utah, and was looking for affordable housing options to be able to move out when he discovered The Housing Co.
He said he loves the “quiet” apartments and that they are not what he had imagined.
“Something I would tell people is that affordable housing, low-income housing, whatnot — it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re dirt poor,” he said. “You can have a job. You can have a life. It just means that you’re below the median.”
More affordable units to come
Wood Rose is set to officially open with a ribbon cutting Dec. 3. Cushman said he is “proud of how well it fits into the community and neighborhood.”
The next affordable housing development coming to Meridian, Centrepoint Apartments, is set to be very different from Wood Rose. The apartment complex, which was approved by the City Council Nov. 19, will have 239 units in two-, three- and four-story buildings, the Statesman previously reported.
The project received mixed reviews from community members, some of whom argued before the council that the large complex will cause increased traffic and strain on nearby schools. Others believe the project will provide badly needed housing in a rapidly growing city.
Mary Weeks, a 62-year-old Wood Rose resident, provides care for disabled women through Life Inc., a developmental disabilities agency. Weeks told the Statesman she lives in one of Wood Rose’s five market-rate apartments but has been within the low-income range in the past. Weeks said this is the first time in five years she’ll be able to live without roommates.
Her take: “It’s definitely worth it.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 4:00 AM.
