Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

There are two major factors in the cost of living puzzle, how much things cost and how much people earn.

Tonight, we take a look at affordable housing and efforts to open up higher paying jobs to more Idahoans.

I'm Melissa Davlin.

Idaho Reports starts now.

Hello and welcome to Idaho Reports.

This week, associate producer Logan Finney explores how the Workforce Housing Fund contributes to solving the affordable housing puzzle and what else is needed.

Then President Gordon Jones from the College of Western Idaho joins me to discuss a new four year degree proposal at the community college.

But first, let's get you caught up on the week.

Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder has stripped two senators of their vice chairmanships and has threatened to take another off the state's budget setting committee.

This comes after those three lawmakers have repeatedly criticized their colleagues publicly for votes on budget bills and other measures.

Senators Brian Lenney, Glenneda Zuiderveld and Scott Herndon defended themselves, saying Winder's actions violated their First Amendment rights.

This is only the latest flare up of tensions between different factions of the Idaho Republican Party as the Idaho Freedom Caucus and Main Street Idaho are rallying support for their respective caucus members ahead of the 2024 primary election.

A lawsuit from Attorney General Raul Labrador against the Idaho State Board of Education is heading to trial.

Labrador sued the state board over alleged open meeting violations after the board went in to executive session, closed to the public, to discuss the University of Idaho's proposed acquisition of the University of Phoenix earlier this spring.

Last week, a judge dismissed some of Labrador's complaints, but will allow one to move forward in civil court.

If the judge agrees with Labrador.

It could jeopardize UI’s acquisition of University of Phoenix.

The Idaho Department of Labor has announced the state's unemployment rate hit 3.2% for October, up slightly from September's 3.1%.

That's still lower than the national unemployment rate of 3.9%.

One highlight of Friday's job report last month, Idaho led the nation in non-farm job growth with a 3.5% increase across industries like manufacturing, real estate and retail.

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare director Dave Jeppesen is retiring after five years of as the head of Idaho's largest state agency.

Jeppesen shepherded Idaho through the COVID 19 crisis and Medicaid expansion.

Idaho Department of Insurance Director Dean Cameron will serve as interim health and welfare director, while Governor Brad Little searches for a replacement.

It's no secret that Idaho has a housing crisis.

Housing is hard to come by and units that are available are expensive.

There's no single solution to the complex problem.

But one piece is the Workforce Housing Fund created by the 2022 legislature.

This week, associate producer Logan Finney travels to Bonner County to see how the fund is working out in their community I don't think that it's a secret.

There's a need throughout the state for all types of housing.

One way to address a lack of affordable housing, build more homes at more prices that Idahoans can afford.

Financing that right price point is often easier said than done, says marketing director Jason Lantz from the Idaho Housing and Finance Association.

Affordable housing is kind of a broad term.

The challenges that a resort community like in the Ketchum area would face is completely different from what, you know, more metropolitan area like Boise or the Treasure Valley would face.

And then you throw in, you know, there's an acute need for affordable housing that's safe for, you know, in rural areas.

We are rural.

Every inch of Bonner County is considered rural by the USDA standards.

Chrystal Horvath is executive director of the Bonner Community Housing Agency, a Sandpoint nonprofit that, unlike a governmental housing authority, partners with developers and residents to help build private homes in an achievable price range.

What we strive to do is build homes that people making the average median income can afford to purchase.

For a family of four, the state says median income is about $57,000 to $60,000 a year two adults.

I know lots of people that have one or two part time jobs and they are making, you know, $2,000 a month and feel pretty blessed to be making that.

Low income housing is one piece of affordability.

But recent policy efforts have narrowed to focus on workforce housing or homes in the price range of people who in theory are making a decent salary but still struggle finding a place to live.

The intent there is housing for people who are increasingly finding it difficult to find affordable housing that are in the workforce already.

And, you know, that could be anywhere from nurses to teachers to first responders.

We need people to come here that are our doctors and nurses and law enforcement and, you know, all these public servants.

We are we are missing the mark with that price range and lower.

Nancy Hadley is a longtime Bonner County resident with deep family ties in the community.

She owns a piece of land in town, which she's developing in partnership with the Bonner Community Housing Agency.

BCHA helped me develop it and come up with the idea of smaller lots, of the triplex, the quad buildings, duplexes and keeping them single family.

So they are single family attached.

As an example, ten years ago, $250,000 was the price that I wanted to hit.

And by the time you do all the infrastructure, cost of the land, build the houses and builders are very hard to come by.

I just wasn't able to hit the target number.

Unfortunately now, you know, our number is $360,000 to $450,000 and then with the change in interest rates, that also has changed it.

Basically stalled the project.

Because all the prices increased and the cost of all the supplies increased, the cost of building increased and then nobody can afford those loans.

Most of our local employees are not making $30 an hour.

They're making, if they're lucky, $16 an hour.

And a lot of them are at $10 to $12 an hour.

Hopefully, interest rates will come back around and we'll be able to work with some other programs that hopefully we'll be able to get some people in there and they'll be able to have homeownership.

State lawmakers in 2022 used $50 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to create the workforce Housing Fund, a program that supplies gap financing in support of housing developments targeted at Idaho's workforce.

Gap financing is a is a very important piece to a complicated financial puzzle that's necessary to build these types of homes.

There's a complicated stack of funding.

You know, there's private investment, there's workforce housing fund, there's community investment.

All those funding mechanisms stack up.

And the Workforce Housing Fund steps in again to fill that gap between what the affordable rents can support and then the cost of building and operating a development for the long term.

Gap Financing from the Workforce Housing Fund allowed Bonner Community Housing Agency to construct two triplex buildings on Hadley's property, making for 6 workforce units.

The fund financed another development in Sandpoint, with 91 units.

And 15 more developments for a total of 1,156 workforce housing units all across the state.

It was a true collaborative effort between municipalities, developers, other lenders and us.

Those 1,150 notes are spread across rural, urban, top to bottom.

You know, 17 developments in 11 different communities.

The numbers just didn't work any other way.

So by having the state participate, and especially since it was my goal to build affordable housing for workforce, it was just heaven sent.

The only reason that's even moving forward right now is because of the ARPA workforce housing funds.

Otherwise, there would be no funds to build even one unit as a spec home to try and use to sell the rest of the units.

Even with the support of the workforce Housing Fund and other financing programs available, housing advocates still see a deep need for affordability.

I have approximately 300 families on my list looking for housing, and we get calls almost every day and walk ins multiple times a week.

I can't tell you how many single moms I have with kids that are working, you know, 30, 40 hours a week and they just can't save enough money to afford the deposit in the security and first and last and everything that it cost to get into a place.

Even if they can find a place.

Some private employers like Schweitzer Mountain Resort, have turned to building their own employee housing to help get at the issue.

But that's not a realistic solution for every local employer.

We've had other businesses who have told us that they have had people accept job positions and then have to turn them down because they can't find a house to live in.

They can't move up here and accept the job.

We need those people.

We need working class people.

We need the trades here.

And, you know, so we're looking at jobs in the $60,000 $70,000 $80,000 range.

There's no way that I'm going to be able to provide housing in the $30,000 to $40,000.

But, you know, a two income earning family, something like that.

I'm working with that person to get them a USDA loan to actually be able to build.

So they can't even build on the lot yet.

Financially, they can't afford it.

With assistance from organizations like the Idaho Housing and Finance Association and the Bonner Community Housing Agency, Idahoans are getting closer to affordable homeownership.

But there's still a long way to go.

Whether it's financing or people who would help or families who would donate land at a reduced price to the housing agency.

Or local families who, instead of renting their house on Airbnb, were willing to rent it to a pre qualified local family, because that's one of the things we run into.

As well is so many homes are going up on vacation rental sites that again, people are being kicked out of their homes because they can make $3,000 renting out their house instead of $1,500 a month, renting it out to a consistent person.

You know, if we can do 30%, 40%, 20%, I mean, it’s just a few units along the way.

If everybody did that, it would make a huge difference.

There's going to be multiple answers and multiple avenues, groups of people hopefully, that come together to create some stability in the low income housing need.

And joining me to discuss that fund is Logan Finney.

Logan, thanks so much for your work on this.

If an Idahoan is curious about this fund, how can they take advantage of it?

Sure, the workforce development, excuse me, the Workforce Housing Fund is open just like any other sort of loan program or grant program to developers who are looking to build these type of units.

What are the status of those units that you discussed with some of your sources in this package?

Sure.

I actually just spoke with Chrystle Horvath from the Bonner Community Housing Agency yesterday.

She said that they've poured foundations, that concrete is curing and they are optimistic and hopeful that construction will wrap up in the spring and they'll be able to get some people housed fairly soon.

So as we're talking about these more than 1,000 units that this fund has made possible, these are still largely units that are in progress.

They're not available for people to move in right now.

Oh, certainly, yes.

And when I when I spoke with the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, they're the ones that administer this grant through with the authority given to them by the state.

The loans are closed and everything is financed, but it is still very early in that construction phase.

That's part of the reason housing is, you know, part of the reason this issue is so complicated is it takes a long time between idea to concept, to execution, to actually getting someone in the house.

It's just a long time frame.

We talk a lot about funding and interest rates, but there are some policy issues at play here, too.

I think I've heard a lot of people talk about things like tiny homes as a potential solution to affordable housing, but that's not going to do you any good if you have nowhere to put the tiny home, which is a zoning issue.

What are some other issues that are not specifically tied to funding that you ran into?

Sure.

Similar to zoning, which is not an issue that the state has any say in, that's more of a county and city local issue.

A similar financial factor is the cost of the applications, the design reviews that cities and planning and zoning commissions do.

The cost to hook up to power and water city infrastructure depending on the city, that can also be a hindrance.

If a lot of those very small fees stack up or they can be different from city to city.

And so that's just one more piece that I that a more local policymaker could could make an impact on.

You touched on this briefly in the package, but AirBNBs and short term vacation rentals are also part of this because homeowners are choosing to rent out on a short term basis to get more money as opposed to a long term basis.

Local municipalities can't ban AirBNBs or local vacation rentals in Idaho.

Right.

That's right.

That is a policy area that the state legislature has passed a preemption law saying that it's the state law takes precedent over over what any sort of regulations that a local city would want to implement.

All right.

Thanks so much for your work on this, Logan.

And this week on the Idaho Reports podcast, you'll find the extended conversation between Logan and Jason Lantz about the Idaho Housing and Finance Association and its array of programs.

You can find the Idaho Reports podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Affordable housing is just one piece of the cost of living puzzle.

Another critical aspect earning potential.

As first reported by Idaho Education News College of Western Idaho is proposing adding a four year bachelor's degree in business administration to its lineup.

The college's board of trustees have signed off on the proposal, and the State Board of Education will soon consider it as well.

Earlier this week, I sat down with CWI President Gordon Jones to discuss the proposal and the place of higher education in today's society.

Thanks so much for joining us today.

First of all, what is this four year degree proposal?

Yeah, so this is a proposal to for the College of Western Idaho to offer a Bachelor of Applied Science in Business Administration and, you know, for most of us, that may sound like a lot of words strung together.

But in higher education, a Bachelor of Applied Science is what it sounds like.

It's applied education.

So you learn some theory, but you also are learning hands on or experiential type learning.

And that's different than a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science.

You might have heard of those terms or listeners might have in some of our four year universities.

So the curriculum of that degree would include some career technical classes and some of that hands on work.

Is this the only four year degree that you're currently considering?

It is.

So the College of Western Idaho has over 50 programs.

All of them are AA’s or Career Technical Education or certificates, things that have historically been in that area.

So this would be a new degree.

But interestingly, Idaho codes allowed for two year schools since 1961 to offer two or four year degrees.

It's just not been something that we've offered to date.

In the future, and we know that the State Board of Education has to sign off on this proposal.

In the future, if that's successful, Do you see offering other four year degrees?

You know, I think one of the things.

Yes, but very limited.

We're always we are committed to being a community college.

We're not trying to become, I don't know, air quotes, a four year college or a four year university.

That's not what this is about.

We have 23 other states in the United States where community colleges offer these applied bachelors that come in and and really we can talk about the purpose, but feeling needs in the community.

And so for Idaho, that's really, I think for College of Western Idaho, that that opportunity is to meet specific needs, not try to become something we're not already.

And let's talk about where you got here.

As you mentioned, this already exists in other states, at other community colleges.

How did you identify that this was a need that needed to be filled in the Treasure Valley?

You know, I think for College of Western Idaho, one of the things community colleges are very sensitive to is being responsive to the community.

And one of the things we looked at, really two things we looked at, one is there are tens of thousands of people in the Treasure Valley who do not have access to really meaningful jobs and terrific career opportunities because of educational attainment and skills or training that can get them access to be candidates for these openings.

And then secondly, we look at a Treasure Valley where one of the things we hear is from our employer community is what's holding us back.

What's the single greatest challenge is having a skilled workforce, enough people to meet demands.

And at CWI we're meeting with, whether it be partners like a Micron or some of the manufacturing community Lactalis, Amalgamated Sugar, Amazon.

We're very connected and when we see those two things at work, we realize that there is a gap and an opportunity for many types of learners who we serve.

Adults, individuals who are career technical backgrounds who might want to go on and get a bachelors, this bachelors of Applied Science is a great pathway for a number of people who are not traditionally thinking about residential based four year, you know, education.

So we think it's about meeting the needs of this community and being sensitive to it.

How much is it going to cost a prospective student?

You know, community colleges have always been about affordability.

So, you know, it is estimated we estimate this will be under $20,000 total.

And that's also, I think, probably welcome to many of the viewers.

Median household income in Idaho, I'm told, is just just under $64,000.

So certainly.

For a two earner household.

For a household, median household income.

And so that kind of affordability is living the promise of public higher ed to me, which is affordable access.

How is the college able to afford to offer the degree at this price point compared to a four year university?

Yeah, so community colleges are certainly known for affordability.

I think in Idaho, we have eight wonderful institutions.

We all are all different.

So sometimes people think of us as the same or equivalent.

And I think we are meeting the state of Idaho needs in different ways.

So community colleges, there's a couple of things that I think go into our level of affordability.

One is often our faculty who are incredibly all of our faculty have master's and PhDs, but they typically are teaching first.

They are all teachers.

We don't do research.

And so they're going to often be teaching more classes.

That means they are connecting to more students, and that lowers our cost because of that ability to teach so many classes for those faculty members.

The other is community colleges are typically we're not residency based.

We do more commuting.

We have a lot of our students are over age 24, a third of our 30,000.

So we're catering to people who want lots of flexibility.

They're not necessarily looking to live on our campus, eat in our dorms, take part in lots of the experience that often our residential based four year partners offer.

And so that allows us to we’re not, we don’t have a large athletics department.

We don't even have athletics.

And so some of those things can, they’re meaningful for a lot of people, but not necessary for everyone.

And that allows us to stay lean and affordable.

How does this fit in with your existing mission at College of Western Idaho with workforce readiness and serving this community that is isn't necessarily a traditional higher education population.

Yeah.

Well, I would say, look, the Bachelor of Applied Science, it may be new in the in the sense that we have not offered a four year degree and pending state board review and approval, it would be new, but I would argue it's really directly on mission.

CWI, we stand, for one thing, affordable employable empowering education.

The type of degree I would argue is less relevant.

It's understanding that our lane is applied career technical transfer, but it's all built on affordable, empowering education.

And this BAS in Business Administration is absolutely dead center set on large employer needs in our community, connecting our residents to those roles and recognizing that this is, I would argue, directly on mission.

This also comes at a time when lawmakers have many lawmakers have made it clear that they really support these career readiness programs.

That they're supporting the governor's Launch program that provides $8,000 in tuition or program fees for these in-demand careers.

Was that something that weighed into your decision to pitch this to your board and the state board?

I think they’re adjacent in length.

But I would just say look, Launch is a very powerful program, but it's built on a premise.

If we think analytically, what is Launch?

And I would say if you like it, you're going to like our BAS because Launch is built on a premise that if we invest and offer our residents a way to lower their cost to get an education, $8,000 That the premise is more people are going to be able to participate in higher ed.

And I think this BAS is addressing a need and it's got levels of affordability sub $20,000 that I believe will open up for many people, for whom today they're not choosing to go, go on, or return to get retrained or re learn a new chapter in life.

So to me, they're very adjacent, they're distinctive.

I mean, launch is a governor initiative that all eight institutions support and participate in.

But this BAS to me is right in the same logic and the same idea, which is if we can make this affordable, more people have access, we can fuel this economy and really create a thriving Idaho.

You talked a little bit about how the eight public higher ed institutions are like siblings.

You serve different populations.

You serve very different communities across the state.

Let's talk a little bit about the identity of College of Western Idaho in this landscape where, again, so many people are really supporting career ready education programs and a lot of students and and young people are really wary of adding on to their debt load and taking on student loans.

When you're looking at, you know, adding this four year program, is this a one off thing that we consider by itself or is it part of the shift that we're seeing when it comes to the public’s approach to higher education?

Yeah, I mean, I, I think at a high level, higher ed in this country is in a chapter like a lot of things.

And this chapter is one of the key attributes, is a public sentiment that's wrestling with affordability, affordability of everything, not just higher ed, right?

It could be housing, could be, you know, cost of living overall.

I think there's a desire for a greater connection to how this can truly pay off, not intellectually, but with the facts.

Do I benefit, not does one who graduates benefit.

Not at a theoretical level.

And I think right now that the community colleges have historically in this country always been functioning with high affordability and high empowerment.

I say empowerment, but really that's for most people, employment.

And at the same time, I think that you're seeing people historically think of community colleges as places where folks who maybe didn't know what they want to do, maybe, you know, weren't interested, maybe sort of a place of last resort.

I think that's changing.

I actually think people are seeing it as a place where value is present.

Meaningful sort of place where smart people go, people who understand value.

People who get that this is a path to empowerment.

It's less about pedigree and more about progress and empowerment.

And I think that the public we're going to be in a phase where we work, all of us work to re-instill confidence.

And I think we have to have our solutions and this Bachelor of Applied Science is saying, let's be a participant in our own solutions to offering up to the community believable, encouraging and empowering pathways.

In addition to saying, Hey, we may be getting tagged with some things that aren't fair, but the reality is, is we got to come up with solutions and I think this BAS is part of that.

What are those unfair things that you're being tagged with?

Well, that I, I don't think I think Higher Ed is doing good work.

I think we are very mission driven.

I don't think there's people who are trying to undermine the fabric of this country.

I think the American dream is run straight through education.

I can't tell you the number of people who have told me about somebody in their family, often one, two, maybe three generations back, who made a bold step to participate in education, to become a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant.

And that had multi generational change.

In my life it was a grandparent who, for them a trade was not the path for them, and it was education that enabled them to pursue a career in science.

Made some great discoveries, I think today that participated in teams that invented things, but also put my father through college and enabled me to have a path.

And I'm somebody who likes to appreciate and not just wave off the past.

I think it's worth, it's worth finding all that good and not just throwing out in wholesale cloth comments that that denigrate some things.

So I think that's what I meant.

I think there's a lot of good there, but I do think we want to participate in making sure we stay current.

We acknowledge where people have real concerns and let's address those with honesty and transparency.

It was a good point too, about generational impacts of higher education.

President Gordon Jones College of Western Idaho, thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks, Melissa.

Thanks so much for watching.

For more content throughout the week, be sure to follow us on social media, including Facebook and our new Instagram account.

You can also find us on YouTube, where we've been posting Idaho Reports episodes from our archive dating back to the late seventies.

This week, our featured episode is from 1983 and explores the previous 50 years of federal government policy on indigenous Americans.

We're off next week for Thanksgiving, but we'll see you back here in December.

Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.