Options emerge for local worker housing
Miller
The Regional Housing and Growth Issues Partnership has charted three possible paths forward in its search to ease local worker housing struggles.
The partnership includes planners, elected officials, community groups and organizations addressing impacts of growth in North Idaho.
Coeur d'Alene City Councilwoman Kiki Miller and Community Planning Director Hilary Anderson lead the group.
Miller presented three options to address housing management during an advisory group meeting this week. She asked members to take the strategies back to their agencies to determine which structure they would favor.
The options:
• Expand and support existing housing entities
• Form a Regional Housing Advisory Board or Housing Alliance
• Form a Housing Authority
Two types of housing entities, Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDO) and Community-Based Development Organizations (CBDO), were highlighted during the meeting.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, CHDOs and CBDOs are typically nonprofits that develop affordable housing.
"In essence, their mission has to be housing-driven, or low-income housing in the area that they work," said Jack Hawkins of Idaho Housing and Finance Association.
Six CHDO/CBDO entities are working with IHFA, Hawkins said. LEAP Charities is a Boise-based nonprofit that uses a housing trust to buy land and build affordable housing in the Treasure Valley. Hawkins said it operates in a "shared equity" model where properties are offered at a "greatly reduced cost" in exchange for a share of any equity when the homeowner decides to sell.
Miller said several organizations in North Idaho perform similar efforts, including the Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance, Habitat for Humanity, and United Way.
By forming a Regional Housing Advisory Board/Alliance, Miller said, the entity would be able to "manage and develop different levels of affordable housing." Miller believes existing housing organizations, regional jurisdictions and funding sources could unite under one authoritative umbrella if the group pursued this path.
"We would have the ability to address low-income or middle-income housing ... and all levels of local worker housing depending on the need, time and having the right agencies at the table," Miller said.
She said a housing authority would be structured similarly to an urban renewal agency. Miller said the organization would have the "liberty" to develop, own or promote affordable housing in a city or region. Idaho law allows housing authorities to bond for funding.
A housing assessment by the University of Idaho is being done. Funded by the Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance and Coeur d'Alene Economic Development Council, the study plans to define market trends impacting housing in Kootenai and Shoshone counties.
PAHA Interim Director Maggie Lyons said the assessment should be available to the public in mid-November. The UI team sent surveys to local employers and real estate agencies about their struggles with the housing market. So far, survey respondents include:
• 2,535 employees
• 57 employers
• 100 real estate professionals
Coeur d'Alene School District's Jeff Voeller also gave a brief update. Voeller said regional growth has created countywide capacity, financial and employee retention concerns.
He said Coeur d'Alene School District has several schools at maximum student capacity. Lake City and Coeur d'Alene high schools serve 1,600 students, but their limit is 1,500.
"Each district has some schools that are currently at or are over capacity, and that's a challenge for each of us," Voeller said.
Though most districts have a plan to secure land for new facilities, Voeller said financing construction is a problem. He said several levy measures failed within the last year due to voter opposition.
"There are some concerns in the community that is leading us to believe that we might not have some of the community support that we once had," Voeller said.
The group's next meeting is Oct. 25.