The housing crisis is being felt in more places than just the Gem State.
BOISE, Idaho — If you’re wondering if we are still in a housing crisis, you don’t read this series enough. But when we say, “we are still in a housing crisis,” we’re not just talking about Idaho.
Boise’s Director of Housing and Homelessness Policy, Nicki Olivier Hellenkamp, knows the City of Trees is in a housing crisis. But so are the Treasure and Magic Valleys, Idaho, and the entire nation.
She said, “I think it’s important to recognize that the things that we are challenged with here really are all over the country, things that cities, counties, states, are grappling with.”
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, poor households face a housing shortage in every state and major metropolitan area in the country. There’s a shortage of more than 7 million affordable and available rentals for households in poverty. That translates to only 35 of those rentals for every 100 households in poverty in the U.S. That number is slightly lower in Idaho, which ranks us in the worst 15 in the country.
But that’s not just the situation facing our lowest earners. Everyone making around or below the median income is facing a housing shortage. All that’s to say, the situation in our communities is not unique, because the issues creating the housing crisis are nationwide.
“The housing crisis is really driven by macroeconomic forces,” said Hellenkamp. “As we see people migrate, as we see interest rates rise and fall, as we see the construction labor market respond to the needs or not respond to the needs, as we see challenges in terms of the cost of land and the cost of building materials, these things are all coming into play.”
Nicki also said it’s both comforting and worrying that no one had figured out the housing crisis yet. If you want to watch our full conversation, it’s on demand now on KTVB+.