Words from Jerry: A Statewide Housing Initiative is Underway

This fall, LEAP Housing is extending to the entire state of Idaho its campaign to provide housing that is affordable for vulnerable Idahoans.  Want to understand one wee aspect of the problem?  Try finding a cup of coffee in McCall on a Monday afternoon.

Five stops and every caffeine source is closed because the shops have no workers.  They have no workers because there is no housing for them.

In this trivial example, the caffeine seekers are LEAP CEO Bart Cochran and myself.  At the invitation of seven small towns desperate to find shelter for workers needed to grow—or even maintain—their economy, we hit the road October 18 heading north.  It was not long before serious examples began to emerge.   

In Orofino, housing is missing for the staff of the state’s psychiatric hospital, a state prison and a regional hospital.  Clearwater County Commissioner Vince Frazier tells us over 100 workers seeking to rent or buy homes have stacked up ever-expanding manufactured home communities west of town.

It is not that there are inadequate or low quality dwellings.  There are none.

It’s a dirty shame there is not enough affordable housing to go around. Photo taken at Dirty Shame Saloon in Crouch.

Tony Mastroiannni, who with his wife Heather owns a coffee shop in Orofino (Yes, we found one!), tells us the region’s emergency medical technicians live in RV’s outside the ambulance door, there being no other place for them.  Where the 25 new hires at the state hospital will live is a mystery to one and all.

The failure of workers throughout the country to return to work is well known.  “Help Wanted” signs are everywhere.  McDonald’s is paying $13 an hour, $15 in some places.

Jobs at the Orofino prison pay $19 an hour to start yet no one is starting, we are told.  

Half way through the tour—after Crouch, McCall and Orofino—we have yet to hear a discouraging word.  Seldom have emissaries been more welcome.  Asked about “Not In My Back Yard” sentiments, so familiar in Idaho’s cities, and Vince Frazier, Benewah County Commissioner and mayors and administrators in  three cities assure us that--fear not--everyone knows affordable housing is needed and will be in eager support.

In each community, Cochran offers to help think through the options.  Locals know what property is available, limited as it may be.  They can imagine who might partner in a new push for housing for those most likely in need of housing—those making 80 percent of the area’s median income.  But this is a complicated, expensive business.

Cochran offers LEAP’s full cooperation to begin the exploration.  He defines LEAP’s purpose and goals.  He sets out a broad menu of possible first steps and eventual funding solutions.  The conversation eventually turns to new infrastructure funding—more than $1 billion for Idaho, with portions broken down to lower levels of government.

So dire is the need that Bart and I, Orofino officials, an historic restoration architect and others spend a morning inside a revered but long-shuttered Odd Fellows Hall, at 100 years the oldest structure in town.  It might be rehabilitated to yield just six apartments after an inevitably long process yet there is an eagerness to proceed.

Odd Fellows Hall in Orofino, at over 100 years old it is one of the oldest buildings in town.

Our tour began in the tiny community of Crouch where developers of a new resort recognize they and the Garden Valley community cannot be successful without workforce housing.  It’s likely two years off but Cochran promises to scope out the nature and extent of the need.

In McCall, the housing prospect revolves around a thrift shop affiliated with St. Luke’s Hospital, which has supported LEAP’s work in the Treasure Valley.  Might housing be built above and adjacent to stores near downtown?  

One morning Cochran is on a Zoom call with economic development officers throughout the state.  Over 40 are on the call.  Sun Valley/Wood River Valley and Driggs are seeing land prices triple.  Benewah County is offering to tear down decrepit buildings for free if landowners will consider selling or building themselves.  Every community, without exception, is deeply concerned.

Yet I return to that phrase, “Not a discouraging word.”  Benewah County’s economic development officer speaks of the empathy he has seen generated when seemingly differing citizens sit down to talk about meeting this universal human need, now growing more crucial each day.  

We began our trip in two days of brilliant autumnal sunshine, the best of times.  Wednesday saw rain.  The skies have to be cloudy some days but they cannot be cloudy all day.  So we shall see.   But one thing is clear:  this is the most urgent of work.  A state-wide initiative has begun.

We stopped at a speakeasy to cap off the trip, cheers to all the collaborators along the way.

About the author: Jerry Brady has been on the LEAP Housing Board of Directors since 2018. Jerry is a former publisher and president of the Idaho Falls Post Register and was twice Idaho's Democratic candidate for governor. Previously, he was an assistant to Idaho Senator Frank Church, assistant director of the Peace Corps, practiced international trade law and co-founded Accion International, a pioneer in micro-financing for the poor.