LEAP Housing Trust

LEAP Housing Trust featured in the Statesman

At the end of last month, we successfully raised $6,506 from over 55 donors during our Idaho Gives campaign. Idaho Gives is a fundraising campaign for all nonprofits (over 650 of them!) in the state of Idaho. We are so thankful for our local community who provides us support everyday, and that isn’t just limited to financial contributions.

Recently, we announced that we were able to raise $2.1M for the LEAP Housing Trust capital campaign, capped off by a $300K gift by Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation. 13 other organizations in the Northwest provided grants to get us close to reaching our goal.

[ICYMI: Idaho trust for affordable housing raises $2.1 million]

Today, we are working to fill the remaining $23,000 gap to provide funding for supportive services and necessary management for the Trust. That’s a mere 1% of the overall goal!

The Idaho Statesman recently profiled our Executive Director, Bart Cochran, and the Whitney Commons community, one of the first in the LEAP Housing Trust, at the site where future homes will sit.

You will find this quote in the article, from the seller of the parcel, Wendy Khlar:

“If I develop a little project and sell it to a builder ... if that builder changes his mind after the sale, there’s little that can be done,” said Klahr. “When I work with Bart [LEAP], there’s actually some certainty that my vision for affordability is actually going to come to fruition.”

Read the full story: Amid widespread housing deficit, 11 new affordable homes are coming to West Boise.

You can help, as Wendy said, help the vision for affordability come to fruition by chipping in toward our $23,000 gap to operate the Trust moving forward.

Whitney Commons is the second community planned in the LEAP Housing Trust, made possible by the support of the community. Located in West Boise, the community will have 11 homes that will be available for affordable home ownership, with one existing home being renovated and rented. All 12 homes will only be available to those who make at or below 80% Area Median Income (AMI).

What is 80% AMI in Boise? It’s $59,850 for a family of four.

For context, the average Idaho salary for a firefighter is $45,250, while for a public school teacher it’s $55,836. (Source: Salary.com)

Our neighbors bring so much to the community that we all benefit from, but the rocketing housing market has left many people behind. The LEAP Housing Trust provides the opportunity to start building generational wealth for families through home ownership that is not available in the housing market today.

Additionally, you can help LEAP continue to make a dent in the deficit of over 22,000 affordably priced units in Idaho by sharing the Idaho Statesman article on social media, and by sharing this post to your friends and family who would like to see more innovative housing opportunities become available.

Thank you for supporting the work we do by donating and sharing our story. We can’t do the work we do without the backing of community members who care for our fellow neighbors.

Let’s build home together.