WElcome Housing

Welcome Housing provides a better beginning for those arriving through refugee resettlement through temporary housing, hospitality, and relationship building. 

LEAP owns and operates 3 Welcome Housing condos on the Boise Bench to welcome Boise's newest residents. Upon arrival to Boise, guests head straight for a Welcome House from the airport and stay for an average of 30 days in a comfortable furnished home. Guests need this temporary housing while they wait for their long-term rental. 

It’s a soft landing in a strange new place. We work collaboratively with local resettlement agencies to create a caring and supportive environment. Welcome Housing was established in 2016, becoming LEAP’s first program.

On average, Welcome Housing guests save $1,200. Cumulatively, our guests have avoided 1,900 nights staying in a hotel. Before Welcome Housing was established most arriving families stayed at a hotel for twice the expense and an often isolating experience.

Aside from a welcoming accommodation, guests benefit by stretching their resettlement funds because the rent at Welcome Housing is half the price of a hotel. This means a family’s resettlement fund can be saved to be used on essentials like a deposit on an apartment or a down payment on a used car. 

Your donations are vital in that they help keep rents low for our new neighbors as well as cover necessary expenses to keep the units looking beautiful and well maintained.

Additional benefits of Welcome Housing:

• Approximately $1,200 savings per family

• Clean, comfortable, furnished welcoming accommodation

• Language interpretation, if necessary

• Connection to needed resources

• Connection to community support

• Orientation to renting in Idaho

• Renter Training an Education Support

• Wifi and Roku television

“One of the biggest benefits of Welcome Housing is that it’s one of the options we have that is the most similar to what their permanent housing is going to be. 

So that gives people the opportunity to start learning how to navigate the apartment setting much earlier. Makes for a more stable environment and easier transition for everyone.” 

-Whitney, IRC Housing Specialist, on the benefits of Welcome Housing.

Thank you to the organizations who stand behind Welcome Housing:

• Agency for New Americans

• Bank of The Cascades

• Boise Regional Realtors

• First Interstate Bank

• The Home Depot

• Idaho Office For Refugees by: Jannus

• International Rescue Mission

• The Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation

• The Lightfoot Foundation

• M.J Murdock Charitable Trust

• Mountain West Bank

• Saint Alphonsus

• WaFd Bank

• Wells Fargo