Affordable housing in the works for Star

The Housing Company is building its 12^th affordable housing project in the greater Treasure Valley on State Street in downtown Star.

Construction on the 37-unit Moon Valley Apartments started in early September and the first of six two-story residential structures should be ready for residents in March. The entire complex, including a clubhouse, is expected to be finished in June or July, said Douglas Peterson, director of The Housing Company.

“Basically, Star is growing up,” Peterson said. “It’s a bedroom community to Eagle. It’s just going to get larger and larger.”

The Housing Company is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. In southwest Idaho it owns and manages 11 affordable housing communities in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell, McCall, Emmett and Weiser.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the Star population at 7,797 in 2015, an exponential rise from 648 in 1990, 1,795 in 2000 and 5,793 at the last official census count in 2010.

Thirty-two units will be considered affordable housing for households with incomes adding up to less than 60 percent of the area’s median income. Four apartments will be market-rate, and one will be set aside for the apartment manager.

Moon Valley will have eight one-bedroom units with 670 square feet and rents ranging from $400 to $650 a month with the top end applying to market-rate units; 20 two-bedroom units with 910 square feet and rents from $490 to $740; and nine three-bedroom townhomes at 1,225 square feet and rents from $625 to $850, Peterson said.

The $7.5 million project is funded through a $6.27 million Low-income Housing Tax Credit purchased by Enterprise Community Investment Inc. and a $1.25 million construction loan from Idaho Housing Finance and Finance Association that will be repaid through a USDA rural development fund grant.

Hutchison Smith Architects is the architect and Wright Brothers Construction the general manager.

Peterson said Star has only two other apartment complexes with 16 and about 20 units and monthly rents from $600 to $725.

“If smaller communities want to be economically viable in the future, they need to have a wide variety of housing,” Peterson said.