SANDPOINT — LEAP Housing’s next statewide initiative to educate and alleviate the issues around affordable housing starts with an hour-long video course. 

The Workforce Housing 101 program, led by Shawn Hill, LEAP’s workforce housing specialist, is geared toward community changemakers so they can better understand the housing issue. Hill said the videos center on two things: why there is a workforce housing crisis in Idaho and potential solutions to the issue. 

“There is a huge gap between what household incomes are in Idaho and what housing costs are in Idaho. So how do we fill that gap?” Hill said. "That's what this training, in part, it offers strategies, tools, policies, to fill that gap between affordable, what people can afford, and what is actually on the market.” 

Once the hour-long class is completed, people are welcomed into one of LEAP’s regional cohorts. Hill said these groups help LEAP understand what issues are plaguing local communities when it comes to housing and how the organization can help. 

“It's really just taking inventory of where everybody is in solving the affordable housing problem and identifying opportunities where LEAP can help,” Hill said. “From there we can, we can create an action plan that fills in the gaps.” 

Hill said workforce housing is another way to describe homes meant for the average income earners in a community. He said that only 6% of homes in Idaho are affordable to the average worker, which creates widespread problems in the state and local communities. 

“If Idaho communities have adequate housing for all those who need it, solves a whole bunch of other problems,” Hill said. “Housing is key to living a good healthy life, and with the lack of affordable housing, then we start to see all aspects of quality of life suffer.” 

LEAP uses three times the yearly median income of a county to determine what affordable workforce housing would be. In 2023, the average median income in Bonner County was $65,000, which Hill said means an affordable home would be around $190,000 to $200,000. 

“How many homes are for sale in Bonner County for $200,000? It’s probably close to zero, if any,” Hill said. 

There are currently no homes for sale throughout Bonner County for that price, according to Zillow. The median home sale price for the Sandpoint metro area was $679,500 in 2025, according to data collected by Zillow. Following the LEAP equation, a person would need to earn over $225,000 per year to reasonably afford a home in the Sandpoint metro area. 

In order to begin addressing the need, Hill said cities should start with a housing assessment to determine its specific needs. Once a community determines its needs, Hill said they can begin attacking its defined issues like the lack of emergency or multi-family housing. 

Hill said one of the potential solutions to the workforce housing crisis can already be found in Bonner County. In partnership with the Kaniksu Land Trust and Bonner Community Housing Agency, LEAP helped build six homes with deed restrictions that keep the homes affordable for residents earning below 120% of the area’s median income.  

The homes, nicknamed The Village at Riverview Ridge, cost around $270,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a loan payment sitting around $1,800 per month. Hill said that the project should be used as a guidepost for solutions across the state. 

"When people say, ‘Well, my gosh, what does what does the solution look like?’ You know, if you're somebody up in the panhandle, you can go over to Riverview Ridge,” Hill said. “If we can build more homes like that, I think it helps all of us visualize what the solutions are.” 

Hill encouraged anyone to take the course to become educated on the topic of workforce housing. He said those looking to make a difference in the community can join the cohort, including business owners and local government officials. 

LEAP is pushing to further its partnerships with city governments to address the issue of workforce housing, Hill said. The next meeting of the North Idaho cohort will be held Dec. 4. 

More information on the course and cohorts can be found at leaphousing.org/housing-101.