Rising housing costs put dent in the wallets of many Boise homeowners and renters

BOISE, Idaho — If you take a look at the Boise skyline, you’ll see the Capitol, the beautiful Foothills, and chances are you also see some large construction cranes.

New homes being built often means increasing housing costs, and officials at Jesse Tree say rent has gone up 40 percent in the past two years.

Katie McInally, Community Engagement Manager for Jesse Tree, moved to Boise more than ten years ago and she says she’s personally seen the price of homes skyrocket.

“A property that I rented in 2012, just ten years ago, for $325 a month is now renting for $1200 a month. In just ten years rent has become completely unaffordable,” says McInally.

Jesse Tree is an organization that helps those who need rental assistance, and in the past year, they’ve helped more than 1,000 families from being evicted.

“I spoke to a family last week who is renting a one-bedroom apartment for a six-member family and that is all too common right now because people just don’t have affordable rentals available,” says McInally.

With affordable housing becoming harder to find, the need for homes increases every day. So much so, that the Boise Housing Authority’s low-income housing voucher waiting list has been closed since 2019, and possibly will not be accepting applications before 2024.

“Until we go through that waiting list, the only resource that we have had actively open for people to apply for is the emergency rental assistance program, and that program just closed last week,” says Deputy Director of Boise Housing Authority Gillian Patterson.

“There’s a human element to this that we also have to factor in, and that can be challenging to measure. But we do know for families that have fixed incomes, or have limited incomes, it is nearly impossible for them to find affordable units for the incomes that they are receiving,” Patterson says.

As assistance programs are closing and waitlists are reaching capacity, stagnant wages are leaving many families and singles questioning where they will live and how they will be able to afford it.