Boise officials present joint MOU and preservation push to expand affordable housing and home repairs

City and partner agency staff told the Boise City Council they are proposing a joint memorandum of understanding to align tools across three entities to accelerate affordable housing production and preservation.

"We know that we need more housing," said Nikki Olivier Hellencamp, director of housing and homelessness policy in the mayor's office, introducing the strategy and a proposed MOU that the three partners will place on the council's consent agenda. Hellencamp said the MOU would create a predictable multi-agency approval process so developers can more easily stack tools such as CCDC infrastructure assistance, housing-authority conduit bonds and city gap financing or fee incentives.

Doug Woodruff, director of development at CCDC, described the agency's participation program and the type 5 policy that governs acquisition and disposal of property for redevelopment. He said recent program updates (2019 and 2023) expanded incentives and that a shared affordability covenant with the city now aligns monitoring and rent restrictions to ensure long-term compliance.

Deanna Watson, executive director of the Boise City-Ada County Housing Authorities, described conduit bonds and past projects where the housing authority issued bonds to lower financing costs for developers in exchange for affordability commitments, citing Civic Plaza and the Nez Perce Apartments as examples.

Melinda McGoldrick of Planning and Development Services briefed the council on housing preservation needs: the 2024 housing needs analysis identified about 20,000 homes needed by 2033 and roughly 4,600 units likely to require rehabilitation; the city set a 1,000-unit preservation goal and is a little more than halfway to that target. McGoldrick outlined preservation tools (direct acquisition, gap financing and home-improvement programs) and said direct acquisition can be more expensive per unit while home improvement and weatherization are cost-effective ways to preserve naturally occurring affordable housing.

Kya Jones summarized resident outreach and a survey of manufactured-home communities: staff received 241 responses showing a large share of seniors among homeowners (survey respondents were mostly 65 and older) and significant need for accessibility and weatherization. Jones said the city's home improvement program has served 72 households since 2020 at an average city investment of about $25,000 per door, and that funding comes from a revolving loan fund seeded with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds; lower-income recipients receive forgivable loans and others receive deferred or low-interest loans.

Katie O'Neil of the city's climate team described a weatherization program that the city supports with about $150,000 annually and that has reached more than 250 households since 2020 by leveraging roughly $9,000 per door from utilities and state funds. O'Neil also described a $1.2 million municipal geothermal pilot tied to an affordable housing project that staff hope will model deeper energy-bill savings.

Council members asked for additional details, including how much of the 2021 bond has been spent for water renewal work and how many preservation projects remain unfinanced. Staff said the MOU is a framework and does not obligate any partner to fund projects; the formal approval and any specific commitments would come through each entity's separate governing process. The MOU was listed on the consent agenda for consideration later in the evening.