POCATELLO — NeighborWorks Pocatello recently broke ground on an apartment complex on the city’s south side that provides 24 new units of affordable housing for local seniors.

The event commemorating the construction start of Park Meadows II was held on May 15 at 555 Park Meadows Drive, located between South Fourth and South Fifth avenues near the cemetery. NeighborWorks has been busy in its efforts to provide housing to senior citizens and other income-limited individuals within the local community alongside its work to improve Pocatello area park spaces.

Following the completion of the first Park Meadows apartment complex project in January, which added 49 new units for local seniors, the new development demonstrates the local nonprofit’s commitment to housing the Gate City’s most vulnerable populations.

“When all is said and done, we'll have a total of 73 affordable rental housing units for seniors there,” NeighborWorks Pocatello Executive Director Mark Dahlquist said. “We really liked doing some development in that area. Not a lot of development is really going out on South Fifth in that area. We just always felt like it was a great area because it needs an uplift. It’s nearly three acres of developed property out that way in an area of town that could honestly use some extra development there. We're pleased to be doing that too.”

Occupancy at the first Park Meadows apartment complex filled up quickly, prompting the construction of a second complex, Dahlquist said. Park Meadows requires its residents to earn below a certain income level and has a minimum age requirement of 55 to reside there. Dahlquist saw the growing need and demand for senior housing and purchased a nearby lot that will add 24 more units. The new $5 million addition will continue to address the growing need for affordable senior housing.

Before setting forth on the new developments, Dahlquist and NeighborWorks completed market and housing studies, noticing that aging baby boomers were a quickly growing population that needed affordable housing. According to Dahlquist, they were able to utilize a tax credit, resulting in an overall reduction of the project's overhead costs.

The second phase of the Park Meadows project will join an extensive list of other affordable housing developments and projects that NeighborWorks has undertaken, including quality of life amenities at various parks across the city.

“We'd like to do some self-help housing projects in American Falls where we own some land there already,” Dahlquist said. “We own six lots. For the second year, we're looking to another Southeast Idaho rural community where we can do like six or 10 houses. That won't start until we get the application awarded and that won't happen until 2026.”

Dahlquist continued, “At NeighborWorks Pocatello, we really see that preserving our existing affordable housing stock is a really big piece of the puzzle. What a lot of people don't realize is that we fix up like anywhere between 25 and 30 houses for owner occupants that are of low income and need help fixing up their properties with new roofs, electrical upgrades and siding, you name it. A really strong and active ongoing program we have is what we call the owner-occupied rehab program. Depending on the applicant and the qualifications, we either facilitate that through grant money that we get from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, or a low-interest loan program.”

Dahlquist also said that NeighborWorks has six active neighborhood associations, each of them taking on various projects. He provided details for the many current and forthcoming changes to local parks.

Caldwell Park in the Idaho State University neighborhood has received funding for landscape enhancements, which has provided maintenance to trees and plans for putting in a pollinator friendly garden on the corner of the park, Dahlquist said.

Freckleton Park, located near the Pocatello Community Recreation Center, is looking at installing new furnishings with new park benches and tables. Alameda Park will also receive improvements with the addition of new information boards.

The Historic Downtown Pocatello community also had big plans over the coming months, with planned outdoor movie nights at Lookout Point.

“Each of our neighborhoods received $2,500 in funding from the city of Pocatello this past year,” Dahlquist said. “Each of the neighborhoods are taking that funding, and in many cases, raising even more money above and beyond that to make these enhancements and improvements. It's really cool stuff. I feel like our neighborhood associations are more active than they've ever been before. They're really getting together and really care and want to make improvements."