The American Planning Association Idaho Chapter (APA Idaho) recognized Coeur d’Alene Councilmember Kiki Miller at its 2024 annual conference awards program in Moscow, Idaho, on October 3, 2024, for her efforts in forming and leading the Housing Solutions Partnership.
APA Idaho’s 2024 Planning Tool or Implementation Award went to the Housing Solutions Partnership for its innovative partnership and successful implementation efforts of Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, Post Falls, Rathdrum, Hauser, Athol, Spirit Lake, Kootenai County, IHFA, KMPO, and 56 participating organizations. This award honors a specific planning tool, practice, program, project, process, or effort that has accomplished positive changes. It emphasizes innovation, transferability, and results that can be measured over the long-term. Nominated projects must have been in use for a minimum of one year.
Jurisdictions throughout Kootenai County formed the Housing Solutions Partnership in 2020 to address housing and growth-related challenges as real estate and rental costs reached record highs. Its mission has been to increase the availability and affordability of housing for local workers in North Idaho. One of the partnership’s main goals is to provide education on what is and is not possible in our area, offer solutions that work, and to educate our decision-makers, citizens and building community.
There have been a number of efforts that have successfully launched since 2020, in part due to the partnership, such as FAQs and the ToolKit on the project website, annual workshops, developer incentives vetted list, a commuter study, Resident-Owned Communities legislation passed in 2024, HomeShare Kootenai County 501(c)3, and support provided for a number of studies conducted by the University of Idaho in partnership with Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance (PAHA), Coeur d’Alene Area Economic Development Corporation and Avista Foundation, and PAHA’s Miracle on Britton land trust/shared equity project in Post Falls.
The Housing Solutions Partnership will be hosting its 3rd Annual Planning and Growth Workshop on Nov. 7 for elected officials, planning and zoning commissioners, city/county staff, builders, and other partner organizations in Kootenai County. A key component of the partnership has been the educational outreach and workshops, which exemplifies the positive changes as recognized by the award.
In the coming months, Miller will be publicly recognizing the organizations involved in the partnership by giving updates to the jurisdictions and sharing the award with them.
“The most important thing we can do as leaders is to keep our decision makers, city staff and community engaged and supporting solutions that address the housing crisis,” Miller said.
For more information about the Housing Solutions Partnership, visit housingni.org.