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MYMERIDIANPRESS.COM // 07.15.16
Your summer guide to live music in Meridian $1.00
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AN EDITION OF THE IDAHO PRESS-TRIBUNE // MYMERIDIANPRESS.COM // 07.15.16
Low-income housing proposal hits pushback in Meridian BY HOLLY BEECH/MP
Meridian Mayor Tammy de Weerd and City Councilmen (from left) Joe Borton, Ty Palmer and Keith Bird listen to a presenter at the July 12 City Council meeting at City Hall.
Councilman questions if project would usher in crime, blight; others say Meridian lacks affordable housing by Holly Beech
hbeech@mymeridianpress.com © 2016 MERIDIAN PRESS
A debate over low-income housing unfolded at the July 5 Meridian City Council meeting when Councilman Ty Palmer told a developer looking to build subsidized housing in downtown Meridian to “please take your project elsewhere.” “Frankly it horrifies me,” he said. “I love it that Boise, Garden City, Nampa, anywhere else that wants it can have it. I don’t want it here.” Developer VCD, LLC is looking to partner with a nonprofit called The Housing
Company to build and manage a mix of market-rate and low-income apartments on East 2 ½ Street in downtown Meridian. They’re applying for a $50,000 federal grant through Meridian’s Community Development Block Grant program to fund streetscape and utility improvements. The public will get to weigh in on this project and other proposals vying for a grant through Aug. 9, when the City Council will hold a public hearing and then decide how the funding is distributed. “I can never vote for subsidized housing in Meridian,” Palmer said. “Meridian is what it is because, I don’t know if we have it.”
COURTESY OF VCD, LLC
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The development company VCD, LLC is proposing to build subsidized, low-income housing in Meridian, similar to its Trailwinds Apartments in Garden City, which were completed in December.
Hundreds of Meridian residents do rely on low-income housing or housing vouchers — some of whom could be your neighbors, you just don’t know it, said CDBG administrator Sean Kelly. In Meridian, 155 residents use housing choice vouchers to help pay the rent, according to the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authority. Palmer questioned if the proposed apartments were likely to increase crime in the area. “Just because they’re high density or low income doesn’t mean that makes crime more likely or not,” Meridian mayor Tammy de Weerd responded. Federally-subsidized housing is held to strict standards, and tenants must be felony-free, VCD co-owner Doug Crowther said. “While background checks may help prevent some future crime being moved in, it says nothing about the people’s ability to maintain what’s provided to them,” Palmer said. “When they have very little ownership over what surrounds them, it’s not theirs, they typically don’t care about it.” Crowther called these remarks insulting. Qualifying for low-income housing, he said, is a “fine line in today’s economy.” “We’re talking about $35,000, $36,000 a year that fall into this income bracket,” Crowther said. “A lot of your employees and even police officers fall into that category. So, you know, let’s not say that it’s going to go down hill.” A family of two in the Treasure Valley making less than $38,600 a year is considered low-income, according to the 2015 Housing Needs Analysis prepared by Agnew::Beck and RPI Consulting for the
city of Boise. Meridian doesn’t have enough housing options to meet the needs of its diverse workforce, Community Development Director Bruce Chatterton said. This forces some workers to either search outside of Meridian for housing or move in with friends and family, he said. The proposed downtown apartments in Meridian would have up to 74 units, with 59 offering lower rents for tenants who qualify, and the rest set at market rates. The developer would put in new sidewalks, making the neighborhood more walkable and boosting business for downtown Meridian, Crowther said. Currently, Chatterton said, there aren’t enough rooftops downtown to support many downtown retail businesses. The apartments will only move forward if VCD and The Housing Company can secure federal low-income housing tax credits through the Idaho Housing and Finance Association. That’s a very competitive process, Crowther said, and receiving the Meridian grant would boost VCD’s chances of being selected for the tax credits. VCD built a similar affordable housing project in Garden City in December, filling the units by February, VCD Manager Chance Hobbs said. All but four of the 64 units are for low-income residents. The project has transformed the area from a “weed patch” with a few old trailers to a beautifully-maintained living area, said Pam Beaumont, Garden City’s urban renewal agency chairwoman and City Council president. Please see Housing, page 3
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