Housing Heroes Profile: Cay Marquart

The Housing Heroes profile series covers LEAP’s advocates and major donors who advance the mission of affordable housing in Idaho. Cay’s commitment of $10,000 is one of eight donations offering matching funds to all donations in the month of December during Avenues for Hope. To utilize the match Cay is providing, visit our Avenues for Hope donation page.

Cay Marquart is no stranger to helping others. In fact, she is the donor behind the land that became LEAP’s first affordable housing development, Windy Court I. “We wanted to buy a piece of property and at some point help with affordable housing. We didn’t expect repayment; I just think it is wonderful that people are being helped.” 

But without LEAP, that land might still be an empty parcel. “I don't know if anything would have gotten off the ground at that property. It was really LEAP that got the ball rolling.” 

LEAP has the know-how on how to take bare land through the transformative process of becoming a welcoming home, or homes. As Cay points out, “The average person has no clue on how to begin the development process. Bart and the other team members at LEAP have the ability to see something that could happen, that other people might not be able to see. And they know how to make great things happen.” 

Cay is passionate about nonprofits partnering with other organizations in the community in order to create affordable housing opportunities.

 “We need partners to aid in the fight for affordable housing. We need to create these connections across the community. Because lo and behold, they come forth when you start reaching out.” 

Thanks to like minded organizations in Idaho, LEAP is able to reach further than ever across the state. St. Alphonsus Hospital is one of those like minded organizations: thanks to their selfless donations, LEAP’s Welcome Housing program has provided temporary housing for newly arrived refugees in Boise.  And Caritas Commons, a 14 unit homeownership opportunity in west Boise, is in the process of closing on six new homes. 

In addition to partnering with other nonprofits, Cay believes that each one deserves unmitigated support from their community. Nonprofits provide help to those who might not know where to turn: “Many, many, many people would like to do something to change their community for the better, but they just don’t know what to do. But knowing that there is an organization out there that does know what to do, well off course, the obvious solution would be to donate to that nonprofit.”

A gift to LEAP Housing isn’t like a gift to a foodbank; it isn’t consumed immediately. A gift to LEAP is a gift that has a ripple effect through future generations. A gift to LEAP creates an affordable opportunity for years to come. As Cay puts it, “The emphasis is that people have been helped, and that there will be generations of people helped.”

We can’t argue with that.