Idaho Housing Report- Region 7

Have you ever considered the role your house has played in your life? Was your home small or was it large? Clean or dirty? Did you have cable, local TV channels, or no television at all? Did you share your bedroom? While we each have had a place to live, each of our housing experiences differ. In the book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond says,

“it is hard to argue that housing is not a fundamental human need. Decent, affordable housing should be a basic right for everybody in this country. The reason is simple: without stable shelter, everything else falls apart.”

Last semester I was able to work with VOICE Advocacy to create an affordable housing report. As we presented that report, the behavioral health board still had a lot of questions about households in Idaho. I am a firm believer that housing affects almost all other areas of a person’s life and therefore it should be thought about more often than it is.

For my senior project, I wanted to dive in a little deeper to what different households are like in Region 7 of Idaho. Region 7 consists of 9 counties: Bonneville, Butte, Clark, Custer, Fremont, Jefferson, Lemhi, Madison, and Teton.

As I learned about these counties and their households, three areas stood out to me. These three things crested the main sections of my report. They are the physical characteristics, the financial characteristics, and the occupant characteristics.

Check out a short video of me talking about the highlights of my report (below) or you can find my full report in the supplemental materials section at the bottom of this page!

Everything above has just been a snippet! Please click the button below to view my full report.