The 39 units in the building with restricted rents have for years been a lifeline for people with limited incomes. Now, tenants say the combination of the six-story building’s only elevator being out of service since last spring — as well as frequent rent increases — have made living there difficult.

The elevator has been unreliable since at least April 2017, according to a federal lawsuit filed by former tenant Ahniah Selene, but it has been totally inoperable since May 2019.

The building is managed by Parklane Management Company. According to a letter distributed to Parklane tenants on May 31, 2019, residents are eligible for a 10% discount in rent while the elevator is broken. This same discount, due to the lack of an elevator, is currently being advertised on a Craigslist ad for an apartment in the building.

Selene recently settled his suit with Parklane. Selene’s attorney, Brian Ertz, declined to comment further on the issue.

Ken Howell, owner of Parklane, said the original elevator that broke was from the 1970s and is difficult to fix. He contracted with Northwest Elevator & Contracting Inc. out of Hayden to complete a “modernization” of the elevator system, which was projected to take eight to 11 weeks. Howell did not elaborate on the reasons Northwest Elevators gave for the long repair period, but he said “by God” the elevator is expected to be up and running next week.

“The Northwest (Elevator & Contracting) owner surely has all kinds of reasons for this delay, but I hope he’ll take some responsibility for it because it’s been hugely costly, both monetarily and because everyone assumed, and perhaps rightly so, that if the elevator doesn’t work that it’s ultimately the responsibility of the building owner, and I get that,” Howell said.

A six-story building without an elevator is a code violation in the city of Boise, according to Community Engagement Director Adam Park. He said the city has been in contact with Parklane in the hopes the elevator is repaired as soon as possible to prevent further action by the city. Park said he is not aware of a similar situation where a high-rise building with only one elevator has been without one for this long.

“Any potential further action would be decided in consultation with the City Attorney,” he told the Idaho Press in an email last month. “We take accessibility issues seriously and have been monitoring this situation and talking with the owner so he knows the importance of resolving this issue as quickly as possible.”

When asked about the code violation, Howell said the meaning of the phrase is up to interpretation.

“You would not be allowed to build a six-story building without an elevator, that’s true,” he said. “Does that mean you always have to have an operating elevator when there’s just a single elevator? I don’t think that’s true.”

LOW-INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDITS

The Idanha was renovated around the time of the new millennium, as part of the Section 42 housing program, which is run by the federal government. The Section 42 housing program promises tax credits to a developer for an initial period of 15 years, in exchange for a set portion of the units being set aside for low-income tenants. For those tax credits — called low-income housing tax credits — to be provided, tenants to have a certain income level, and rents cannot exceed a maximum amount determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Section 42 housing is different from other rental assistance programs, like Section 8, in which rent is calculated based on the tenant’s income, and the rest is covered by the federal government.

After 15 years, the properties in the program are then managed and given incentives by the Idaho Housing and Finance Association if they would like to remain in the program. The Idanha is required to continue being low-income housing until 2040, under Howell’s agreement with IHFA.

Under the Section 42 tax credit program, 39 of the Idanha’s 53 apartments are restricted to low-income renters. Twenty-seven of those affordable units are set aside for those making 60% of the area median income or less, or $30,960 per year for a single person in 2019. This translates to $1,190 per biweekly paycheck before taxes. The maximum rent someone can pay in these units under federal regulations is $828 per month for a one bedroom.

Four of the units are designated for those who make 50% of the area median income or less, or $20,640 per year. This translates to $793 per biweekly paycheck before taxes. The maximum rent someone can pay in these units is $552 per month.

The other four units are set aside for those who make 30% of the area median income or less, or $15,480 per year for a single person. The maximum rent someone can pay in one of these units is $387 per month.

The rest of the units in the building are rented at market rate with no restrictions. As of Feb. 7, a one-bedroom apartment with no restrictions in the building is renting for $1,095 monthly.

RENT INCREASES

The Idaho Press talked with over a dozen tenants of the Idanha, both on and off the record, who said Parklane has been frequently raising rents. Parklane offers six-month leases and then transitions renters to a month-to-month agreement. Tax credit properties are allowed to raise rents on tenants multiple times a year, as long as they are following the terms of lease agreements, according to the Idaho Housing and Finance Association.

Mike Evans, a resident of the Idanha’s second floor, said said last he was paying $671 in rent for January, but that would be bumped up to $750 in February. He said he works as a security guard and makes roughly $380 per week, so he has few funds available after paying rent.

“I just got done paying some bills and now I’m broke again,” he said. “I have got to live next week without any form of income for basic stuff.”

Another tenant, Mitchell Maculley, said he has lived in the building for nearly two years and has had at least two rent increases that he can remember. When he first moved in, his rent for a one bedroom was in the $600 range. He currently pays $828.

HUD determines rent rates by comparing rents to the rest of the Boise area and the area’s median income. This means as rents have spiked, and the median income has increased due to an influx of residents from higher-earning states, so has the maximum amount landlords are allowed to charge.

When asked about the frequent rent increases, Howell said the increases are due to HUD increasing the maximum he is allowed to charge. He acknowledged that he is not required to charge the highest rent allowed under federal regulations, but Howell said he needs to keep pace with the rest of the market.

“If the market changes and rents are falling, we obviously need to keep pace with the market in order to keep the units full,” he said.

Deanna Watson, the executive director of Boise City/Ada County Housing Authority, said Boise’s housing market is so hot landlords are looking for rent increases more frequently than she has ever seen before.

“In my 28 years working in the affordable housing arena, I don’t recall it ever being the case where landlords wouldn’t increase the rent more than once a year,” she said. “Maybe in some odd cases where they missed a year or made a mistake in the amount, but what’s been happening in the market we’ve been seeing recently is more and more landlords raising the rents every time they can raise the rents.”

Tenants like Evans say the lack of a yearlong lease, which allows Parklane to raise rents more frequently, is stressful because he never knows when to expect an increase.

Howell said the idea behind not giving tenants a traditional lease is to give tenants flexibility to move in or out without having to pay large fees to break their lease agreement with Parklane. This also allows his company to make semiannual “market adjustments” to the rent, which he said could go up or down depending on demand. He said recently rents have not decreased.

“There’s pros and cons to that from a tenant standpoint,” he said. “The con of that is if rental rates are going up and will continue to do so, then you want a two-year lease or a five-year lease or whatever. In this case, what I’m saying is we can’t know how the market is changing and when that is going to occur.”

REGULATIONS

Because the Idanha is out of the federal compliance period, there are fewer regulations set up to penalize Parklane or any other company in a similar position for violating policies. IHFA currently checks to ensure the Idanha and other buildings in the program are renting the right number of units to low-income tenants at the appropriate levels and the buildings are “decent, safe and sanitary.”

The broken elevator violates IHFA’s “decent, safe and sanitary” requirement, according to IHFA Director of Marketing and Communications Jason Lantz.

Lantz said the only way IHFA can regulate any developer of tax-credit properties outside of the first 15 years is to block them from applying for the program later, which is irrelevant if a developer no longer wants to participate.

“For starters, they can be placed not in good standing, which means if it’s a developer, owner or operator that wants to build another tax credit development they’re barred from doing that until they’re in good standing,” Lantz said. “Then beyond that, in extreme cases there are legal options.”

Howell said he has no plans to turn the Idanha into upscale apartments.

“I don’t really have a choice for 20 years,” he said. “It’s going to remain as is for the foreseeable future.”