EDITORIAL: Roll up your sleeves for this project

Authorities want it, the community needs it, and John Bruning deserves it.

St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho and The Housing Company, which is affiliated with the nonprofit Idaho Housing and Finance Association, have partnered on an ambitious project to provide 32 affordable apartments in Post Falls.

Granted, the project has a ways to go to become reality. Its net gain for desperately needed workforce housing in Kootenai County would provide a mere shovelful tossed into a big hole.

But that’s how big holes are filled; one shovelful at a time.

And unanimous approval recently by the Post Falls City Council provided a hefty heave. Without its support, the council would have etched an epitaph in the project’s headstone before the project had taken its first official breath.

Thank you, city staff and council members.

More work awaits. According to a Press interview with The Housing Company’s Nate Wheeler and St. Vincent de Paul’s Larry Riley, the next key date is Aug. 4. That’s the application deadline for support that will be based on a grading system for the project. Applicants won’t know until November if their request has been approved.

The proposal looks strong. St. Vincent is providing the land while The Housing Company is helping guide the project, including property management once the facility is completed and open. Both organizations have abundant experience with housing.

According to Wheeler, The Housing Company, directed by Erin Anderson, has constructed 40 properties since its inception in 1990. All but one of those properties, ranging from 12 to 72 units, is in Idaho. The Housing Company manages another 10 properties, as well.

St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho manages about 300 units across 14 properties, Riley said. While its primary focus is addressing needs of the homeless, this project is all about workforce housing, with planned rents of the 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units going from about $600 to $1,200 a month, based on residents’ income.

Now, about Mr. Bruning and the work that remains to be done before actual construction can take place.

For decades, John has served his community in a multitude of ways, including high profile as a member of the Coeur d’Alene City Council and less visible but important roles on boards and commissions. The St. Vinny-Housing Company project, with a thrift store on the ground level and apartments on two levels above that, will be named in his honor: The John Bruning Commons.

A longtime St. Vincent board member, Bruning has earned that recognition as one of our region’s most generous, compassionate and constructive citizens.

To honor John and to find out more about how you might help close the funding gap, please contact Riley: larry@stvincentdepaulcda.org

Let’s make this project work. It’s a shovelful well worth the lift.