Priced out of Boise, a Lyft driver lives in his car — one of hundreds who faced eviction

Jeremy McKenney had limousine tint installed on his car windows for the comfort of his ride-share passengers. He never fathomed that he would end up relying on the upgrade to help him get a good night’s rest.

But since being priced out of his rental home in Boise’s West Bench at the end of July, the longtime Treasure Valley resident has been forced to seek out quiet places to catch naps in his silver sedan between Lyft rides. And overnight, he parks and sleeps before the next morning’s shift. That’s far easier, McKenney has discovered, than finding another house he can afford in Boise large enough for him and his two young kids, whom he cares for part time.

McKenney, 45, was initially served an eviction court notice after he said he couldn’t afford his rent increase, so contacted Jesse Tree of Idaho. The area nonprofit offers homelessness prevention services, and worked with McKenney’s property management company to avoid his formal eviction, which provides only three days to leave. Instead, Jesse Tree secured him a full month to move.

Today, McKenney remains on the hunt for his next rental, but said he is losing hope. For the first time in his life, he is contending with homelessness. The predicament, he said, makes him feel like a failed parent.

“It’s a terrible feeling. It’s, like, is this really happening?” McKenney said in an interview with the Idaho Statesman. “I feel like I have failed them to provide for what they need. Honestly, I do.”

After making his monthly child support and payments on his 2007 Chevy Malibu, there’s little money left to save toward his next place, he said. A January auto accident while working also totaled his prior car, which set him back a couple weeks’ pay as he healed from a shoulder injury and also found his replacement vehicle.

“So I’m left with a few hundred dollars to my name,” McKenney said. “And all these people want thousands of dollars up front to move in. It’s just insane. Because of today’s market, I can’t pay for anything, so I’m living in my car.”

‘Things are getting worse’

Soaring population growth, skyrocketing rents and limited housing have together pushed many lower-income residents in the region out of the homes where they already could barely keep the lights on. This perfect storm of factors has culminated so far this year with a nearly 36% surge in evictions within the Treasure Valley compared to the same period last year, according to data from Jesse Tree.

Through August, 694 tenants across Ada and Canyon counties have had their landlords take them to eviction court. At the same time last year, it was approximately 511, and about 500 cases in 2020, the data showed.

Affordable housing experts expect those numbers to continue to rise.

At the current pace, Jesse Tree projects eviction hearings between the two counties to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, up from 835 in 2021. With a combined total of roughly 760,000 people, Idaho’s two most populous counties represent almost 40% of the state’s residents.

A federal ban on evictions, issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, took effect in September 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to help stop the spread of the virus and keep Americans housed. After taking office, President Joe Biden extended that moratorium through July 2021. The U.S. Supreme Court ended another extension the next month.

Ali Rabe, Jesse Tree’s executive director, said the end of the eviction ban has contributed to the uptick of court hearings locally.

“Things are getting worse,” Rabe, who’s running for an Idaho Senate seat, told the Statesman by phone. “The number of people falling into homelessness is increasing, the number of people in eviction court is increasing. This is despite a lot of federal rental assistance money being available right now.”

In December 2020, Congress passed a $2.3 trillion pandemic-related spending bill signed into law by former President Donald Trump. The package included $25 billion in emergency rental assistance to help prevent families from facing evictions during the crisis. Those funds were then distributed to individual states based on population, with no state receiving less than $200 million.

Idaho was one of 17 states plus Washington, D.C., to receive the rental assistance minimum. Nearly $176 million of Idaho’s share was dedicated to the program to help at-risk renters throughout the state, while the remaining $24 million was split between the city of Boise and Ada County to account for Idaho’s largest population area.

To qualify for federal assistance, residents must have experienced a documented loss of income from the pandemic and make at or below 80% of the area’s median income. In Ada and Canyon counties, that equates to $47,150 in annual earnings for an individual, and $67,350 for a four-person household. The income thresholds are less in most of the state’s other counties.

Rental assistance falls short

About a year into the availability of the federal assistance, the city and county program, managed by the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities, spent nearly all of its $24 million.

Meanwhile, the statewide program, overseen by the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, disbursed aid at a more gradual clip, leaving it unlikely to spend down its full allotment of federal aid by the end of September 2022 deadline. The city and county program in turn requested more of Idaho’s money be transferred through a U.S. Treasury reallocation process that prioritized keeping unused aid in the state for which it was intended.

Idaho, however, chose against following the Treasury’s guidance for keeping the rental assistance money in state. In January, just a third of the $33.1 million the federal agency recaptured from the state came back to the Treasure Valley. The remaining dollars were passed out to other states.

A second reallocation happened in March, with another $30.5 million pulled back from Idaho, this time with about $12.5 million of it returned to the local housing authorities. To date, Idaho has lost about $40.3 million of its original $200 million in emergency rental assistance dollars to national redistribution.

A recent Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy study found that Idaho ranked among the bottom five states in the U.S. last year for disbursing the emergency rental assistance to the lowest-income bracket made up of those at or below 30% of the area’s median income. In Ada and Canyon counties, that equates to no more than $17,700 in annual earnings for an individual and $25,250 for a four-person household.

The national average for getting aid to these residents — defined as extremely low-income and the most vulnerable to eviction and homelessness — was 65%. Idaho stood at 53%.

“Families with the lowest incomes are being hit the hardest by this rapid shift in the market and are at higher risk of experiencing the downward spiral of evictions, which are expensive for families and communities,” Kendra Knighten, policy associate at the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, said in a news release. “Emergency rental assistance programs have been a critical lifeline to renters over the past two years, and these programs are most effective when outreach efforts and application processes are visible and accessible to all eligible households.”

Rabe said Idaho residents, including the lowest-income earners, ran into several barriers trying to access the emergency rental assistance through the statewide program. The funds could have been managed more effectively, she said.

“That I know,” Rabe said. “I do think the program would have been a lot more successful if the funds were decentralized and sub-granted to grassroots community organizations and schools across the state of Idaho. We’re the ones seeing these populations directly, and I do think case management is an important component to prevent evictions, especially for vulnerable populations.”

Without another federal reallocation, the city and county program will have disbursed about $47.5 million of Idaho’s total allotment of federal emergency rental aid. The statewide program, meanwhile, spent $60.4 million through July, Ben Cushman, a spokesperson for the Idaho Housing and Finance, told the Statesman by email.

Cushman did not respond to a request for the statewide program’s remaining federal rental assistance balance, though a Statesman analysis indicates it is about $51.7 million ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline to spend the money. The Treasury also opened an extension process so remaining dollars can be disbursed through December for entities that file a request, though it is unclear if Idaho Housing and Finance has applied.

Under a follow-up $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill signed by Biden, up to another $21.55 billion was designated for emergency rental assistance, with slightly looser eligibility rules. Of that total, Idaho received $152 million, with nearly $125 million of it allocated to the statewide program. The city and county program, plus a new program reserved exclusively for Canyon County residents, split about $27 million, with all of the money needing to be disbursed by the end of September 2025.

Search for rentals persists

For Cassandra Romero and her family, the federal emergency rental assistance has been a life changer.

Last fall, Romero, 37, and her husband, Michael Barylski, 41, had to find a new home for themselves and their six teenage children when their landlord of 10 years planned to raise their monthly rent by $1,000. Romero was diagnosed with epilepsy several years ago and became a full-time homemaker taking care of the kids, which also shifted Barylski into the household’s only earner.

The family was able to locate a three-bedroom rental home in Kuna that they’ve made work, still at a few hundred dollars more a month than their prior four-bedroom Boise house. But then Barylski came down with COVID-19 in February immediately after an unrelated minor surgery, Romero said, and while he was off work, the family fell behind on rent.

When the family’s new landlord began actions to move to evict them for nonpayment, Romero contacted Jesse Tree for help. They qualified for the pandemic relief funds under Ada County’s program and were able to negotiate a deal that guarantees the landlord rent through September while the family financially got back on their feet.

“My kids are my entire life, and we’ve done everything we can,” Romero told the Statesman by phone. “But they were able to help when we had nothing. It was either we received help, or we’d have been in a homeless shelter with six children.”

Even so, because the family previously missed a couple payments, their landlord doesn’t plan to renew the family’s lease when it expires on Nov. 1, Romero said. So, like droves of other would-be tenants in the Valley, they’ll be forced back into scouring Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and similar listing websites, desperately seeking affordable housing.

The family is open to returning to Boise if they come across the right fit, Romero said, but now prefers to stay in Kuna. She said their family is optimistic and committed to remaining in the area.

“Everything is just stupid priced right now,” Romero said. “I feel like we’ve battled our way through a lot of issues the last five years. So we’ve gone through a lot, and we’ll keep fighting. We won’t stop.”

McKenney, though, is starting to accept that he is unlikely to find a suitable rental, largely because of the mix of market forces that have driven housing costs up in the region. He said he’d gladly welcome access to a refrigerator and a more consistent shower again. But, in the meantime, he’ll continue to splurge and host his two children at an area hotel when his co-parenting days arrive.

“Personally, if not for my kids, I’d live in my car for the rest of my life,” McKenney said. “I’m a very simple guy. I don’t need all the amenities everyone needs. I just need basic amenities.

“As long as the car runs, and the AC works good in the summertime, I’m good,” he added.

To check eligibility requirements or apply for the program reserved for Ada County residents, visit https://erap.bcacha.org. For the program for all other Idaho residents, which is paid directly to landlords or utility companies, visit www.idahohousing.com/hpp. Jesse Tree also offers its own rental assistance program, with applications available at www.jessetreeidaho.org/apply.