Housing Heroes Profile: Wendy Klahr

The Housing Heroes profile series covers LEAP’s advocates and major donors who advance the mission of affordable housing in Idaho. Wendy donated $10,000 to LEAP in the month of December during Avenues for Hope and would like to raise an additional $10,000 through folks that are near and dear to her cause and LEAP’s mission. Get Wendy one step closer to her $10,000 goal by visiting our Avenues for Hope donation page.

What if I told you that there’s a normal person out there who is actually doing something about affordable housing? She’s not a bleeding heart. She’s not a pundit. She hasn’t even shaped any policies. And, get this - she’s not a builder.

Wendy Klahr could be all of these things, but she focuses on one very particular part of affordable housing: land development.

A rather vague title and job function, land development is perhaps best described by an example. Wendy recently bought a vacant commercial lot near a busy section of Overland Rd. located near the old Rocky’s Diner.

Working within the parameters of city zoning ordinances, she collaborated with her architect to present a new planned use of the space to city planners.

The city ultimately approved Wendy’s plan and she subsequently sold her project to a builder who brought her team’s vision out of the ground, and voila! 15 brand new residential units were created.

So that’s what land developers can do.

If you’ve been following LEAP for any amount of time, you might recognize her business, Dark Horse Associates. Dark Horse sold LEAP the land that would become Caritas Commons, the Treasure Valley’s first community land trust for home ownership. 

To understand how special that is, recall the scorching hot real estate market of 2020. Here was a 1.6 acre plot of prime real estate off of State Street near the border of Boise and Eagle, just off Horseshoe Bend Road. 

Wendy already knew LEAP because she sold LEAP the land where Windy Court 2 now sits (LEAP’s second affordable housing development). The land across the street - the 1.6 acres - was perfect for LEAP. But how on earth could a fledgling nonprofit compete for that kind of land amidst a bananas-crazy real estate market? 

A patient seller, that’s how. LEAP put Wendy’s land under contract for nearly a year before it actually closed. Nobody does that. Especially with a kid in college.

“I worked with LEAP Housing to form an agreement for the sale of my property that worked for them and generated sufficient profits for Dark Horse. We did good in the community by doing good business,” Wendy said.
But certainly she could have made more money, right? 

“One of my colleagues chastised me a little, insisting that I had left hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table,” Wendy said with her trademark jovial tone and laugh. 

She continued, “He was probably right, and I could have probably sold it faster as well. But, for me, business is not just about providing a good living for my family. It’s about setting an example for my children and feeling good about what I do.” 

Not long afterward, she sold 2 acres of land to LEAP that is slated to become Whitney Commons, another community land trust with 11 homes. Like Windy Court 2 and Caritas, these swaths of land are (or were) situated in existing neighborhoods in the city’s urban core.

To think like Wendy, you allow yourself to see opportunity when others see a burnt-out building, a vacant lot or even a home that has a few tenths of an acre more than it should. Industry jargon that describes that kind of development is called “in-fill development.” 

“I have long been a proponent of infill development. I feel that if we can save our farmland and take advantage of infrastructure already in place, then that is something that we should do,” Wendy professed with mounting enthusiasm. 

“You have schools, police, fire, you have all these things in place and communities that already exist, it’s just smart to redevelop lots that already exist in those places. I’m not saying it’s the only good business idea or trying to make a moral statement, I just believe it’s smart to do.” 

One alternative to infill development is finding farmland on the outskirts of communities where neighborhoods are undeveloped and there is plenty of space. In those areas, housing density isn’t really a challenge. And for that reason, some might say that it’s an easier path than building locally. 
But there actually might be a moral challenge to taking an easier path. Or at least a missed opportunity.

Where you have mature neighborhoods with established schools, nearby grocery stores, bus lines (the whole nine yards), better outcomes seem nearly guaranteed. Wouldn’t it make sense for income-constrained families to get that chance? 

“There should be opportunities for housing at all income levels throughout our cities,” Wendy said. “That may not be true of every single neighborhood, but it can certainly be true in general.”

Wendy, while positive and affable, is not a Pollyanna, aka blindly optimistic. She’s even-handed and fair. And she is also direct. 

“I’ve worked in Seattle for many years as well as Idaho. I split my time. As bad as the housing crisis in Idaho is, we really haven’t seen anything yet. Seattle’s homelessness problem has compounded year after year as housing prices have increased. If you’re going to do something and have it make a real difference, the easiest time is now. The longer you wait, the harder it gets.” 

Wendy has slowed down her production a bit of late. She says she used to do as many as 15 - 20 projects a year but has reduced her volume to three projects in the last year.

Right now, she’s got her sights set on a nifty residential project in the Sycamore District not far from LEAP’s recent Taft project with Collister United Methodist Church. If she plays her cards right, she says she might be able to turn a single residential lot into three homes. 

LEAP’s Housing Heroes aren’t just the large developers, businesses, and organizations who are getting things done. Wendy has shown us that heroes are the ordinary folks - the small but mighty. The selfless. The dark horses.