2023 Annual Report

Happy New Year! I’m pleased to be able to present you with Idaho Policy Institute’s (IPI) 2023 annual report. Now halfway through our eighth academic year, IPI continues to be a cornerstone of excellence within Boise State University’s research landscape. At the heart of IPI’s endeavors are a steadfast commitment to the School of Public Service’s directive to embody the role of public servants and a vision to be an independent, nonpartisan resource for decision-makers that propels our mission forward.

In adherence to our mission, IPI aspires to provide decision-makers with unbiased research, equipping them to navigate the complexities of contemporary challenges. Our primary goal is to assist state and local leaders in forging strong directions for Idaho and beyond the state. Rooted in the principles of collaboration, community responsiveness, educational impact, public engagement, and research integrity, we channel our efforts towards rigorous and defensible research, ensuring the outcomes of our work are insightful, relevant, and valuable.

As public servants, we recognize the profound responsibility entrusted to us, and our values guide our every action. Collaboration fuels innovation, community responsiveness ensures our work addresses real-world needs, educational impact underlines the transformative power of knowledge, public engagement forges connections with the community, and research integrity forms the bedrock of our credibility.

Team: Vanessa Fry, McAllister Hall, Lantz McGinnis Brown, Aisha Kayed, Taylor Neher

Community Partners: St. Luke’s Health System, Saint Alphonsus Health System, United Way of the Treasure Valley

Every three years public hospitals must conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment or CHNA. Historically, hospitals in Idaho have conducted their own assessments. For the 2023 CHNAs, St. Luke’s Health System, Saint Alphonsus Health System, United Way of the Treasure Valley, and other partners worked collaboratively with IPI on a comprehensive CHNA process that included the Greater Treasure Valley Region (Ada, Elmore, Boise, Valley, Gem, Adams, Canyon, Washington, Payette, and Owyhee Counties), the Magic Valley (Jerome and Twin Falls Counties) and Blaine County in Idaho and Baker and Malheur Counties in Oregon.

This unprecedented partnership aligned several independent regional assessments to identify the health needs of more than half of Idaho residents. This collaborative approach utilized a social determinants of health (SDoH), also known as social influencers, framework to determine the top priorities of the regions examined. Key priorities identified in the regions include: access to safe, affordable housing, access to affordable health care (including vision and dental, access to affordable mental health services, transportation, and high cost of living, among others

Team: Matthew May, Benjamin Larsen, Cheong Kim, Lantz McGinnis-Brown, Gabe Osterhout, Kyle Peterson, Kellen McGurkin

Community Partner: Idaho Commission for Libraries

The U.S. Digital Equity Act of 2021 provided all states with funding to develop and implement digital inclusion plans that specifically address the digital access needs of eight covered populations in their states: low-income households, those age 60 or older, the incarcerated, veterans, individuals with a disability, those with a language barrier, members of a racial or ethnic minority group, and those who primarily reside in rural areas. In 2023, IPI was contracted by the Idaho Commission for Libraries to conduct research and draft the State of Idaho’s digital equity plan, entitled Digital Access for All Idahoans.

As part of this 10-month process, IPI researchers engaged in three distinct research streams to identify specific challenges or barriers to digital access across Idaho: 1) 17 regional focus groups conducted in-person all across Idaho; 2) two scientifically valid statewide surveys, one to a geographically and demographically representative sample of 1,000 Idaho adults and another to a representative sample of 400 Idaho adults in Spanish-speaking households; and 3) 15 stakeholder interviews targeting any remaining organizations or covered populations that were not sufficiently represented in prior data collection efforts.

Following analysis of this data as well as secondary data provided by the Idaho Commission for Libraries, the IPI research team prepared a draft digital access plan. The plan underwent a required 30-day public comment period to ensure that it best represented the needs of Idaho’s various communities. In October 2023, the plan was finalized into a 223-page report identifying both 3-year and 5-year goals and outlining an implementation strategy to inform the State of Idaho’s digital access efforts over the next five years.

You can read the full plan at: https://libraries.idaho.gov/digital-access-for-all-idahoans/

Team: Ben Larsen, McAllister Hall, Lantz McGinnis-Brown, Emma Redman

Community Partners: Idaho Legal Aid Services, Intermountain Fair Housing Council, Utah Legal Services, Montana Legal Services Association, Jesse Tree, Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy

Through various sponsored and unsponsored projects, IPI continues to be the leading source of data and research on evictions in the Mountain West. IPI has monitored eviction data, services, and policies throughout the Mountain West states of Idaho, Montana, and Utah. IPI does data management for the HUD Eviction Protection Grant Program in partnership with Idaho Legal Aid Services and other partners across Idaho, Montana, and Utah. The program provides low-income households with free eviction legal services and representation. In the two years of the program, 1,800 households have received eviction services. 

IPI is also working with the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy on an Idaho Eviction Prevention Resources Needs Assessment to determine the costs and implementation considerations for establishing statewide eviction prevention services in Idaho. In 2023, IPI began the project by creating an eviction prevention services asset inventory, which lists many organizations that provide services to households at risk of eviction. IPI collaborated with several partners to collect data on the costs of providing eviction prevention services. In 2024, IPI will continue to develop a method of modeling the costs of eviction prevention services. 

In 2023, Idaho eviction data revealed that the annual number of evictions may be on the rise, continuing an upward trend since the dramatic drop of eviction filings in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, 2,167 (about 1.2%) of Idaho’s renting households had at least one eviction filing and 1,082 (about 0.6%) were formally evicted. Eviction court filings rose 10.7% from 2021 to 2022. However, the number of households with formal evictions decreased by 2.3%. In 2022, Idaho residents still had access to emergency rental assistance funds provided in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though eviction moratoria were not in place in 2022, filings and formal evictions remain below pre-pandemic levels. This could be a result of the successful distribution of rental assistance funds or increased mediation in high-population counties such as Ada and Canyon.