Earlier this week, the city of Boise announced significant investment into a housing complex expansion named New Path 2.0, as part of continued investment to address homelessness.
The expansion will be the second New Path development to provide permanent supportive housing (PSH) in Boise. Permanent supportive housing is defined by its distinction from temporary shelters or transitional housing by providing “stable and permanent housing” along with a variety of services including “mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, employment assistance, and life skills training,” according to the Idaho Community Foundation website .
Boise’s first two permanent supportive housing projects, New Path and Valor Pointe, have been a “resounding success.” From 2019 through 2022, they have reduced the usage of emergency services by “4,264 fewer days, resulting in $6,774,554 of avoided community costs,” Casey Mattoon, Our Path Home manager, stated.
A Supportive Housing Plan, published by Our Path Home in 2021, found that there was still a need for “hundreds of additional Permanent Supportive Housing units” in order to meet the needs of Ada County, Mattoon stated.
The New Path expansion, located at 2200 W. Fairview Avenue, will be looking to address this shortage.
New Path 2.0 will provide homes for 95 households and is scheduled to break ground in September of this year and begin housing residents by September 2026, Maureen Brewer, Boise’s housing and community development manager, said.
In an appearance before city council, Brewer provided a timeline for a variety of new and established housing locations that will be providing for the community:
The Franklin is providing for 20 households nowState & Arthur will provide nine homes, expected to open 2025Denton will provide 19 homes, expected to open 2025The Sherwood will provide 48 homes, expected to open September 2025The Fulton is expected to provide 50 homes by early 2027McKinney is expected to provide 21 homes by 2027Lusk Street is expected to provide more than 30 homes by 2027
The heightened need for further investment into permanent housing solutions comes as Boise shifts away from some of its temporary housing solutions that were a product of changing needs brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
DIVESTMENT FROM RED LION ROOMS
Interfaith Sanctuary has operated with the Red Lion to coordinate shelter since May 2020 in “direct response” to COVID-19 Brewer said. The various shelters, particularly Interfaith Sanctuary, did not have the space available to safely distance people, while the hotel could allow for people to both secure shelter and isolate themselves when necessary.
Since the hotel first made rooms available as a housing solution in 2020, 969 individuals have been served. Of the almost 1,000 served, 53% were families with children, 31% were individuals who had contracted COVID-19 and 16% were individuals deemed medically fragile, Brewer said.
“To have a resource like this online while the city has been working so earnestly to bring long-term housing solutions, it’s been a critical importance to the partnership and those that we serve,” Brewer said.
The operation to house homeless individuals in the Red Lion hotels from May 2020 through Spring of 2025 has an estimated cost of $7.9 million. Brewer said that 14% of funding came from city funds, while the other 86% came from COVID relief funding that designated the isolation of homeless individuals with COVID-19 as “an eligible use.”
“Most of us are acutely aware of this, but COVID relief funds are nearly fully expended across all fund sources,” Brewer said. “So, in order to be proactive, (community partners) have all began planing to scale down the hotel shelter.”
Brewer presented the council with two options for a phase-out period.
The first one is an accelerated plan that would set a phase-out deadline for March 31, 2025. Under the plan, no additional funds would be needed, but Interfaith Sanctuary would have to immediately stop admitting new households into the hotel shelter and start transitioning the medically-fragile to Boise Rescue Mission facilities, Brewer said.
“Given this time frame … it will be difficult for most folks to transition to permanent housing,” Brewer said.
The second option would be a more gradual shift, with a final phase-out deadline of Sept. 30, 2025. Brewer said that this option would require an estimated $463,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act, the general fund and cost savings. This plan would also look to stop admitting medically-fragile households, with few exceptions, and stop admitting families with children by March 31, 2025.
Brewer said that a longer transition away from the hotel housing will help ensure that the individuals and families who rely on these services can be properly placed in appropriate housing.
“Our postpone (plan) will ensure that no household is exited to the street and that we will offer an option or multiple options if those aren’t available for either shelter or housing,” Brewer said. “So winding down, having a little longer runway, that extra six-month bridge sets up up for a higher degree of success.”
The Boise City Council decided to opt for the longer runway in a 5-1 decision.
This shift away from the Red Lion and towards permanent housing projects is already being pursued by a number of local organizations that have dedicated themselves to the cause of reducing homelessness throughout Idaho.
IDAHO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
The Idaho Community Foundation is one local organization that has been working to provide grant funding for housing programs in Idaho, including “transitional housing and emergency shelter to ensure safe environments” and organizations that provide emergency rental assistance to prevent homelessness, Lisa Bearg, senior philanthropic advisor at the Idaho Community Foundation, said, in an emailed statement.
The Idaho Community Foundation expanded its investment into these housing solutions in April of this year with the establishment of the Supportive Housing Investment Fund (SHIF). The city of Boise has already provided $7.5 million in seed funding and ICF is actively pursuing additional financial support to “at least double the fund total in the first five years,” Bearg stated.
“Hospital systems, corporate partners and individual philanthropists have already committed funding to this transformational public-private partnership — the first of this magnitude in Idaho to address PSH,” Bearg stated.
In total, Bearg stated that she expects SHIF to provide support services for more than 230 households that are living in permanent supportive housing.
“By addressing the holistic needs of individuals, these developments effectively disrupt the cycle of homelessness, curbing reliance on emergency services and enhancing overall quality of life,” Bearg stated.
CATCH IDAHO
CATCH Idaho has been working in tandem with Our Path Home to connect members of the community that are experiencing homelessness with permanent housing solutions in the area.
Connor O’Hora, CATCH’s outreach team lead, said that the organization works directly with Our Path Home’s coordinated entry system to connect individuals with permanent supportive housing units.
“What my team does is we connect to folks who are experiencing homelessness, and most the time are unsheltered, so either camping, staying in their cars or just disconnected from services in general,” O’Hora said.
O’Hora said that his team works directly with permanent supportive housing providers by identifying what community members would benefit from the services, providing assistance with the application process, and advocating for individuals when there are openings for permanent residence.
O’Hora pointed out that though permanent housing can provide widespread positive outcomes for those experiencing homelessness, the solution was not all-encompassing.
“Traditional housing is not possible for everybody,” O’Hora said. “People who are transitioning into housing after experiencing homelessness for even a short amount of time can have a hard time acclimating back to just a living situation that they haven’t experienced in a while.”
This prevalence of trauma made it integral that the housing solutions provide support services not only to make more housing available, but to also keep people in housing, O’Hora said.
“What we find is that the trauma that people experience during the times that they experience homelessness really doesn’t rear its head until people have the ability to have a locked door again,” O’Hora said. “Then they realize how hard of an experience they’ve been through.”
While permanent supportive housing can provide a solution for many, there will still be gaps that need to filled for those that are unable to live independently or care for themselves. The homeless population of the Treasure Valley is aging, O’Hora said, which can present additional challenges and require more resources for proper care.
“That comes with a new set of challenges as far as higher medical need, and then serious and persistent mental health (issues) is certainly a factor that is over-represented in our homeless population,” he said.
Though there is still work to be done to address the issue, O’Hora said that the CATCH team was happy with Boise’s continued investment into housing solutions, and reiterated that who is and isn’t homeless is not meritocratic.
“People experience homelessness for a variety of reasons, some within their control, absolutely, but some are completely outside of their control,” O’Hora said. “Regardless of how it happens, when people are consistently in crisis and trying to navigate services, it drags our community down as a whole.”
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