How Boise is leading the charge for affordable housing and workforce development | Opinion
Like many cities, Boise is working hard to tackle its biggest challenges. Topping our list are two issues that municipalities face everywhere: ensuring sufficient affordable housing and building a robust workforce. If these were easy tasks, people would have solved them long ago.
Luckily, we now have some extra help. Congress passed a major infrastructure package a few years ago, and money is starting to flow to successful grant applicants. These programs finance an array of needs, such as building roads and bridges, mitigating floods and wildfires, expanding high-speed internet access, and much more.
In Boise, where I’m mayor, we are laser-focused on affordable housing, workforce development and energy efficiency. Housing is particularly urgent. We conducted a study that found that Boise needs 2,770 new housing units every year for the next 10 years to meet demand; 77% of this demand is for housing affordable to those earning 80% or less of the area median income.
My initiative, “A Home for Everyone,” means just that — building homes for everyone who wants to live here: from students and young professionals to empty nesters and retirees, from CEOs to currently unsheltered residents to blue-collar workers.
Expanding housing and the workforce go hand in hand. Tradespeople such as electricians, plumbers and skilled construction workers typically make good wages. But in today’s high-priced housing market, they often struggle to buy or rent homes suitable for themselves and their families.
I’m proud to say Boise recently won a $3.2 million infrastructure grant to expand our work on electric vehicles and jobs related to them. The award — from the Federal Highway Administration’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant program — will enable us to do three things: build new public electric vehicle charging sites, launch a workforce development initiative to incorporate EV charging training into two electrician apprenticeship programs and implement an “Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Job Fair” to run for at least two years.
Our application emphasized strong stakeholder engagement and a data-based commitment to prioritize the needs of disadvantaged communities. Our housing study found that homelessness, increases in refugee resettlement, and student enrollment create specific needs for dedicated housing development. In crafting our proposal, we were glad to receive help from the Local Infrastructure Hub — and then share our insights with other, particularly smaller, municipalities.
Spearheaded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Local Infrastructure Hub is a national program that provides pro-bono strategy sessions, technical training and grant-writing bootcamps for cities and towns seeking federal funds. It brings together subject-matter experts, national policy leaders and mayors representing localities spanning an array of needs and sizes.
The program coaches officials on how to mine for government assets, identify grants from over 400 that best match specific needs, and assemble viable and competitive applications — all of which is required by cities, towns, and villages to confront our pressing infrastructure needs. With support from the Ballmer Group, Emerson Collective, Ford Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Waverley Street Foundation, The U.S. Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities, Results for America, and more, the Local Infrastructure Hub is working across the country. The consortium has provided expert technical assistance and hands-on grant-writing support to more than 1,600 municipalities nationwide, including over 1,000 with 150,000 residents or less. Like Boise, the towns Pocatello and Rexburg are among its participants.
Boise — with a population of about 237,000 residents — is larger than most municipalities aided by the Local Infrastructure Hub. But I was eager to engage, having benefited from other programming led by Bloomberg Philanthropies to drive innovation in local governments worldwide, including the yearlong Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. Several of our Boise team members immersed themselves in the Local Infrastructure Hub’s technical trainings and grant-writing sessions, which provided step-by-step guidance from experts, invaluable data resources, and learnings from officials working through these same opportunities and challenges in other cities. It is a unique and unprecedented network of supports that has been pivotal to our success.
American municipalities must be creative and energetic to overcome challenges in housing shortages, job creation, climate change, and more. To do this effectively, we must cast a wide net, making the most of resources and partnership from government, philanthropy, and other public-private sector organizations.
I’m grateful to Congress and the Biden-Harris administration for enacting these major infrastructure programs. I also thank the Local Infrastructure Hub, and salute their efforts to fortify the problem-solving, resource-capturing capacity city halls need to meet the moment and succeed. Now, a new generation of local leaders are equipped with the capabilities and the confidence to strengthen infrastructure, improve services, and better their communities.
My vision is to create a city that’s truly for everyone — one that offers equitable access to quality, affordable housing, good-paying jobs, public transportation, and a seat at the table for every resident when decisions about Boise’s future are being made. I know that many of my peers across the country have the same ambitions, and we’re rowing together to achieve them.
I welcome all resources — be they local, regional, or from as far away as Washington, D.C. — to ensure we take advantage of every opportunity to build a future-ready Boise. Already, we are well on our way. I urge other mayors to join us in working with the Local Infrastructure Hub — alongside other municipalities. Together, we can demonstrate to residents that yes — government institutions can work on their behalf.