Coeur d'Alene family finds stability through Family Promise aid

Josh and Brooke France spent months chasing stability after leaving Portland for what they hoped would be a better life for their children. They stayed with relatives, then with a granite shop owner in Post Falls who stopped to ask their story, and later in a motel in Newport, Washington, after their living situation fell apart.

Their turnaround came when they found Family Promise of North Idaho. The nonprofit works with local churches to provide temporary shelter, meals and support for families with children while they seek permanent employment and affordable housing. The same day the Frances connected with the organization, Josh France was hired on the spot at a nearby restaurant franchise, giving the household immediate income as it rebuilt.

Family Promise helped the family with a hotel stay, then a community-based housing program, and eventually a place at Peace Lutheran Church. Brooke France was living there when baby David was born. The path from instability to a church bed underscored how the organization’s rotating host-church model works: congregations open their doors, provide overnight shelter and meals, and move families from one site to the next as they work toward permanent housing.

The need in Kootenai County is not easing. A University of Idaho-led housing study said prices in Idaho and Kootenai County were among the fastest increasing in the country, and the 2023 update warned that rising home prices and rents threaten the sustainability of median-income households. Idaho Housing and Finance Association’s 2025 Point-in-Time count recorded 246 homeless people across Region 1, including 145 unsheltered and 101 sheltered. Family Promise of North Idaho’s compiled data also cited 1,384 homeless children ages birth to 18 in Kootenai County in 2024.

Family Promise says its mission is to help families experiencing homelessness and low-income families achieve sustainable independence through a community-based response. Its Day Center and offices are on the bottom floor of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 5th Street and Wallace Avenue in Coeur d’Alene. Nationally, Family Promise says it has served more than 1 million family members since it began more than 30 years ago.

The local nonprofit’s work will be on display at Starry Night, its only in-person fundraiser of the year, set for 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 24, at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn. The dinner-and-auction benefit supports programs that help families with children in Kootenai County move toward stability, dignity and a place to call home, the kind of outcome the France family reached with help from churches, volunteers and Family Promise staff.