![]() ![]() Via City of BoiseĮconomist Phyllis Resnick, who worked on the study and now leads the Colorado Futures Center, said researchers used consumer spending surveys that track what Americans of all incomes spend their money on. Fisher and the City of Boise at Franklin and Orchard in Boise. Updated rendering of a proposed affordable housing project from J. This number is likely higher now due to the growing gap in housing costs and wages in the three years since it was calculated. ![]() And it costs Idaho’s economy hundreds of millions every year.Ī 2018 study conducted by Denver-based Shift Research Lab found Idaho missed out on $670 million per year in economic spending due to the number of Idahoans who are paying more than 30% of their income in rent. That puts taking their family out to eat, paying for new clothes, or possibly renting a cabin in the mountains for a weekend away out of reach. Rising rents mean residents, especially those earning the lowest wages, are more strapped for cash. ![]() “Without that housing, downtowns dry up and you have people living further and further away and you push costs from housing-related issues to transportation issues because now you’re trying to get people from further away into downtown for work,” he said. He pointed to a more extreme example of this already happening in Idaho’s resort areas, like Sun Valley. Idaho Housing and Finance Association’s Executive Director Gerald Hunter said the lack of affordable housing close to downtown Boise could eventually push restaurant workers, baristas, and other low-wage workers out and leave downtown struggling. It means less money in the pockets of residents to spend at local businesses, strains employers as they try to hold on to workers, and can destabilize communities and the mental health of residents. When housing costs sharply outpace wages, it has wide-ranging impacts on the region’s economy as a whole. ![]()
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