Home is everything.
Are you reading this from your home? Maybe you’re sitting on the couch or lying in bed. I’m sitting at my cozy kitchen table while I write this. And as the days grow shorter and colder, I’m reminded more than ever just how blessed I am to have a safe, comfortable house to call home. Unfortunately, many of our neighbors here in Boise aren’t so lucky.
As you’ve probably noticed, Idaho has been experiencing unprecedented growth for some time now, especially here in the Treasure Valley. Last year, 973 evictions were filed and 2,246 people became homeless for the first time in Ada County alone. That’s 78% of the total homeless population entering shelters for the first time in their lives. The majority of families who lose their housing end up in that situation because of a temporary inability to pay rent.
And it’s not hard to see how that could happen. In the U.S., housing costs continue to increase, along with costs of child care, healthcare, and other essential expenses. Meanwhile, wages aren’t keeping up: 70% of jobs in Idaho pay less than $20 per hour, and two-thirds pay less than $15 per hour. For families living paycheck-to-paycheck, as many of our neighbors here in Boise are, a single unanticipated financial expense or shortfall—an unexpected car repair, a traffic ticket, a doctor bill, a sick day that results in a smaller paycheck—can easily make it so a family can’t pay their rent.
When eviction happens, it has long-lasting effects on a family’s social, mental, physical, and financial health. There are effects on the rest of the community, too. On average, it costs our community upwards of $50,000 a year per person who’s homeless. Those costs are incurred by our health care system, emergency responders, and supportive service agencies like nonprofits and our homeless shelters. If we fail to prevent someone from losing their housing, we’re creating a difficult and expensive situation for them, and for our community as a whole.
Thankfully, we know what works to end family homelessness: financial assistance and supportive services. When we provide those interventions to families at risk of housing loss or experiencing homelessness, we save money and the social costs of homelessness for our community. It costs Jesse Tree around $1,000 to keep a family at risk of eviction and homelessness in their home.
When I’m not on the campaign trail I’m directing Jesse Tree, the Treasure Valley’s only nonprofit focused on preventing eviction and homelessness from happening to our neighbors and community. We provide support, education, and rental assistance to keep people housed during an eviction. Right now, our work is more important than ever—for many tenants in our community, back rent continues to pile up.
Housing is one of the biggest reasons I’m running for office this November. Our state legislature has continued to fail to address this crucial issue, and we can’t wait any longer. I’ve spent my career working to ensure people have access to this most basic human right. And as Idaho continues to grow—and as we navigate the impacts of this pandemic—it’s more timely than ever. Some of the ways I’ll seek to address this problem as your State Senator include:
Address rising property taxes for residential homeowners. The homeowner’s exemption cap has been stuck at $150,000 for years, and residential homeowners are bearing 70% of the overall property tax burden. I plan to:
Shift the burden from residents to commercial property owners,
Raise the homeowner’s exemption cap, and
Extend circuit breaker protections to vulnerable populations
Get the state to invest in the housing trust fund & reduce barriers to sensible housing development--especially of affordable units—to address our housing shortage and keep pace with growth.
Come up with state-centered solutions and investments to reduce evictions and foreclosures.
Revise landlord-tenant laws and improve eviction processes to ensure tenants are protected, and that landlords can save money by avoiding eviction.
Boise is not a San Francisco, Seattle, or Portland—yet. But if we don’t put our heads together to get ahead of our housing crisis, we will see rates of eviction and homelessness increase in our community, decreasing quality of life for all of us. Thankfully, we have made great strides in building local momentum, partnerships and programs over the last year. Next is bringing up that vision to the state legislature and getting them to face growth and address our crisis.
In the nonprofit sector, we learn to work with all kinds of people through public-private partnerships. We also don’t have the luxury of just talking about problems and making promises we don’t fulfill—we are forced to act, and to show our work with quantifiable outcomes funders can see. That ethic is one I’ll keep close at hand when I’m in the state house.
