ICCU and LEAP partner for affordable homeownership solutions

Thanks to a partnership between an Idaho credit union and an affordable housing-focused nonprofit, more people could be seeing dreams of homeownership come true.

LEAP Housing and ICCU have formed a $5 million partnership to create affordable workforce homeownership solutions for residents in Mountain Home at the Falcons Landing community.

The model being used is one of deed-restricted housing on a community land trust, said LEAP CEO Bart Cochran. It ensures housing payments match local incomes on a permanent and legal basis.

“By joining hands in this pilot program with ICCU, we hope we are creating a scalable homeownership model that can help Idaho’s real estate ecosystem adapt to and overcome market conditions in a repeatable way,” he said.

The first qualifying couple to benefit from this partnership is Mike and Wanda Thwait, retirees who are purchasing one of the new homes built in Falcons Landing.

“We are very appreciative of this opportunity,” Wanda Thwait said. “We are both on social security because we became sick at the same time and had to stop working.”

Thwait retired from a career in corrections, having been a corrections officer, a parole officer and a trucker. Her husband is a retired trucker as well and a veteran of the U.S. Army.

According to LEAP Housing, the Falcons Landing community is a 136-unit, master-planned development that has both rental housing and homeownership opportunities. Sixty of the rental unites are built and 30 are under construction, while eight of the homeownership units have been sold.

“We believe in doing dream loans for dream homes by assisting with financial empowerment to create opportunities,” said Ed Tierney, chief lending officer for ICCU.