University of Idaho to turn hotel into housing

The University of Idaho is converting the FairBridge Inn in Moscow into a residence hall for its students and staff.

The UI has leased the former hotel on Baker Street and will change it to North Campus Communities, an official residence hall and part of the UI campus.

According to UI, this is being done in anticipation of an increasing number of returning and transfer students. It will provide housing for approximately 200 returning students, said John Kosh, UI Auxiliary Services director of business development, marketing and communications, in an email.

“The use of the North Campus Communities will go a long way to alleviate room availability concerns for these residents,” Kosh said.

Each room will be fully furnished for two occupants. A SMART Transit bus stop is located nearby

According to UI, campus security will patrol the North Campus Communities, and students who live there can ask for a security escort as part of the university’s Safe Walk program.

The FairBridge Inn temporarily housed students last fall when the university experienced overcrowding in its residence halls.

Kosh said UI did not purchase the property, but has entered into a one-year lease.

“We do, however, have the option to extend the lease to additional years if needed,” Kosh said. “It is our understanding that when the lease concludes with the university, the property will return to being a hotel.”

While this move will address a shortage of housing for students, it also means there is one less housing option for the local homeless population.

In the past, Moscow-based nonprofit Sojourners Alliance partnered with FairBridge Inn to temporarily provide rooms to homeless individuals through motel vouchers.

That ended after Sojourners ran out of federal funding to provide vouchers earlier this year. That funding was distributed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic during a time when Sojourners saw an increase in the need for temporary housing. Sojourners director Casey Bolt said Sojourners spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on motel vouchers during those early years of the pandemic.

The need is still there. Bolt said he is working on obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money from foundations and the state to provide motel vouchers again. From June 2022 to May of this year, Bolt said Sojourners Alliance provided hotel rooms to 189 Moscow and Lewiston residents.

If Sojourners Alliance is selected to receive this money, the nonprofit probably won’t see it until this fall, Bolt said. If that does happen, Sojourners will have to look somewhere other than the former FairBridge Inn for rooms.

The St. Vincent De Paul Society has worked out a deal with La Quinta Inn and Suites in Moscow to provide temporary housing, Bolt said. Outside that, options are limited, Bolt said.

“It’s just all very concerning,” he said.

As Moscow faces a general shortage in available shelter for low-income residents, Bolt believes the problem could be addressed by the creation of a public housing authority in Moscow that would essentially own and operate subsidized housing. Looking forward, it may be more viable than letting the market dictate the availability of low-income housing.

“I just think that a more public solution is the only option,” he said. “I don’t think the market is going to solve it in any sense, long-term or short-term.”

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.