Boise nonprofit will open 58 transitional apartments for homeless — for as low as $0
The Boise Rescue Mission plans to open its new transitional housing unit on the Boise Bench for working residents who are at risk of homelessness.
The Boise Rescue Mission, a faith-based nonprofit that runs homeless shelters and transitional housing in Boise and Nampa, will host a grand opening Saturday for Next Step, a 58-unit apartment building on Curtis Road.
The apartments replace a former assisted living building. The Rescue Mission has worked on renovating the building for the past two and a half years, according to a news release from the organization.
In a video tour of the Next Step transitional housing complex, Rev. Bill Roscoe, president and chief operating officer of Boise Rescue Mission, said the apartments will be for tenants who have spent time in a homeless shelter program and are wanting to move into a more independent living situation.
“It’s a tough step from homelessness and shelter life back into the community,” Roscoe said. “And so this project will provide that next-step assistance that people need in order to make that transition smoothly and successfully.”
The apartments are studios and one- and two-bedroom units. There is a central commercial kitchen and dining room.
Roscoe said tenants will have breakfast and dinner in the dining room and have soup and sandwiches for lunch, with the ability to take sandwiches to go if they have day jobs.
Tenants will not pay rent, Roscoe told the Idaho Statesman by phone, but instead will pay a program fee on a sliding scale. The scale starts at $0 for people who have no means to pay and goes up to $500 for people with two-bedroom apartments who can pay.
The program fee includes meals, case management and counseling, Roscoe said.
Roscoe and other housing advocates have said apartments built by private developers, even with help from the city of Boise, are still too expensive for people exiting homelessness to afford. Roscoe offered his organization’s transitional living as a possible solution.
The Boise Rescue Mission operates around 50 transitional living apartments throughout the valley, according to previous reporting by the Statesman.
“This addition will significantly expand our capacity to help people take an intermediate step from our emergency shelters toward independent living,” Roscoe said in the news release.
The Boise Rescue Mission will host a grand opening and tours for The Next Step starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 27, at the apartment complex at 1777 S. Curtis Road.
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