Gem State Housing Alliance

Gem State Housing Alliance Idaho’s nonpartisan pro-housing advocacy group. 🏠
We help cities and communities build more homes for Idahoans. Join our movement! 🤎

Casey and Daniel grew up in Post Falls. They never thought they'd own a home there. Then the Miracle on Britton made it ...
06/01/2026

Casey and Daniel grew up in Post Falls. They never thought they'd own a home there. Then the Miracle on Britton made it possible.

The Miracle on Britton is a 28-home neighborhood spearheaded by the Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance, led by Maggie Lyons, a Gem State board member, designed to make homeownership attainable for families who earn too much to qualify for assistance but not enough to afford a median-priced home in Kootenai County.

95% of Miracle on Britton homeowners were raised in Kootenai County. Every home has been sold to families who wanted to stay but couldn't afford to, until now.

"There's a real desire in this community for people to stay where they were raised."
— Maggie Lyons, PAHA Executive Director and Gem State Housing Alliance Board Member

This is what pro-housing solutions look like in action. Read the full story in the Coeur d'Alene Press. Link in comments.

Gem State is hosting the Mountain West regional pro-housing conference in partnership with the Welcoming Neighbors Netwo...
05/29/2026

Gem State is hosting the Mountain West regional pro-housing conference in partnership with the Welcoming Neighbors Network. Pro-housing advocates from across the region will be visiting Boise for the conference, and we want pro-housing Idahoans to be in the room with them.

We're hosting a Pro-Housing Happy Hour following the first day of our conference. This is your Come connect with people as passionate about housing as you are.

📅 Monday, June 8 | 5:30–8:30pm MT
📍 Hap Hap Lounge, 722 W Broad Street, Second Floor, Boise

Space is limited — register in advance (link in comments).

The beauty of North Idaho has been discovered, and local teachers, nurses, and working families are feeling it in their ...
05/29/2026

The beauty of North Idaho has been discovered, and local teachers, nurses, and working families are feeling it in their housing costs.

North Idahoans aren't just competing with neighbors. They're competing with buyers looking for second or third homes.

Faced with a shortage of attainable home choices, cities are taking action. Post Falls has reduced minimum lot sizes and created pathways for starter homes. Sandpoint has expanded the types of homes allowed to be built. These changes aren't drastic. They're just updates to outdated rules that were quietly getting in the way.

Our Executive Director recently chatted with the Bonner County Daily Bee about what we're seeing across North Idaho and how we're working to make it easier to build the homes Idahoans actually need.

Read the full story. Link in comments.

05/27/2026

Growth is happening whether our cities plan for it or not.

When communities stop building homes, costs go up and people are priced out. When we only widen roads, we don’t fix traffic.

Real solutions mean growing smarter. That means more homes in convenient, connected communities so Idahoans can spend less time commuting and more time living.

Boise is making it easier, and more affordable, for homeowners to add a small home to their property. The city now offer...
05/27/2026

Boise is making it easier, and more affordable, for homeowners to add a small home to their property.

The city now offers eight free, pre-approved ADU blueprints ranging from studio to two-bedroom homes designed by a local architect specifically for Boise neighborhoods. Each one named after a bird, because this good policy has a good personality too.

A custom design can cost $10,000. Pre-approved plans get rid of that cost and speed up the permitting process.

Gem State works with cities across Idaho to put tools like this within reach.

Check out Boise's full catalog: https://www.cityofboise.org/pre-approved-adu-plans

Idaho's housing future will be decided by who shows up.Pro-housing Idahoans exist in every community across our state. B...
05/22/2026

Idaho's housing future will be decided by who shows up.

Pro-housing Idahoans exist in every community across our state. But they're scattered.

Opponents of housing — those who show up to every planning commission meeting with matching t-shirts and three-page public comments — are organized.

That's a critical gap, and we want to talk about how to fill it.

Our Director of Advocacy, Hollie, is hosting a conversation about how to organize pro-housing advocates in your community to build public buy-in for the policies that will shape Idaho's housing story.

Gem State Lunch + Learn: How to Organize for Housing
📅 Thursday, June 4 | 12–1pm MT
💻 Free + Virtual via Zoom
Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/5iNF9yMyQ1S8472koFNbzA

05/21/2026

What happens when there aren’t enough attainable housing choices in our communities? People are forced to leave the communities they work in.

We’re working with Idaho cities to make it easier to build the homes Idahoans actually need in the places they want to live.

“We are leading the nation in new starter homes. Where most people don’t see starter homes at all and it’s an extinct sp...
05/19/2026

“We are leading the nation in new starter homes. Where most people don’t see starter homes at all and it’s an extinct species, we are reviving them here.” — Neil Heller, zoning consultant, Portland

Portland is taking a novel approach to building more starter homes.

Their secret weapon? A tiered floor-area ratio rule. Homes on a single lot are capped at half the lot’s square footage, but builders who construct duplexes, triplexes, or fourplexes get progressively more square footage to work with. That makes building more homes on a lot the smarter financial choice.

In the first year after the rule was enacted in 2021, 88% of new building permits were for duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. The city has permitted 1,400 homes in three years.

The lesson? Changing what’s allowed isn’t enough. The math has to work for builders too. Gem State works with cities across Idaho to find approaches that do both.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/18/portland-housing-infill-ratio-duplexes/

Boise recently updated its affordable housing and sustainable housing incentives — and if you're working to get more hom...
05/15/2026

Boise recently updated its affordable housing and sustainable housing incentives — and if you're working to get more homes built, this one's for you.

Join Gem State and City of Boise staff for a virtual conversation about what changed, how it works, and what it means for housing in Boise. Bring your questions.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/hZ0c2mwFTEKgddwrmEmhqQ

05/11/2026

Who gets to call our communities home?

To ensure more Idahoans have that choice, we have to build the homes they actually need. That starts with pro-housing Idahoans pushing for more home choices in the places they love.

Gem State is here to help make that happen.

Address

S Clearwater Loop
Post Falls, ID
83854

Telephone

+12089960090

Website

https://www.gemstatehousing.org/socialmediapolicy

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