Homeowners' heartbreak: Foothills families show extensive damage in sliding homes

BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) — One home is already condemned, and several others aren't far behind, as houses in a foothills subdivision continue sliding down a hillside.

Lawsuits have since been filed, and now, several homeowners on Alto Via Court say they're packing up, trying to get out before the situation gets worse.

The homeowners' attorney tells KBOI 2News the homes have slid more than a foot-and-a-half since March, but that the developer has declined to provide them updated information in the last three weeks. In the meantime, residents say they've also had to pay to maintain a section of the road, which buckled to a point that it could no longer be driven on.

THE DAMAGE: AN INSIDE LOOK

Stacy's home was the first to show signs of stress, and within a matter of weeks she and her family were forced out when the residence was condemned by the City of Boise earlier this month. She and her family have since found another place to stay, but they've also had to come back to the house several times to strip cabinets, windows, flooring and decorative items out of the house they once called home.

She says walking inside the house doesn't bother her as much as it used to, but was quick to point out that cracks and creaky sounds would accompany steps through the main part of the home. The sounds of cracking are nothing short of haunting, and the sights speak for themselves.

Large cracks line many of the walls and ceilings. Doors that once locked into place now hang crooked, and pieces of the ceiling have started ripping away.

"There's a crack here that has opened up into the guest room closet, so you can see right through there," Stacy said, pointing to a gap several inches wide.

Outside, the home has been pulled from its foundation in several spots; some pieces of ground lift up several inches higher than others, and out back, patio bricks have pushed into the grass displaying the power of the Earth's movement.

Stacy tells KBOI 2News the entire process has been unimaginable, but that one of the hardest things to do has been explaining the situation to her children.

"My second grader started taping up the walls and the hardwood, trying to fix all the cracks," Stacy said.

But this degree of devastation can't be taped up, or repaired in any way.

She says it was a transformation she never expected to see; her home is just over two years old. Homeowners tell KBOI 2News the developer had all of the lots on the street pre-engineered, and that they also were required to have an engineer come out to assess and approve the stability of the lots.

"I never imagined our house would be un-salvageable," Stacy said. "Never, ever."

Now other neighbors on Alto Via Court say they're starting to see more dramatic changes at their homes, too.

Leslie and her family have lived in their home for more than three years, but say they know they don't have much time left there. She showed KBOI 2News some of the damage that has now creeped inside her home, saying it hints at a scary reality that's not far away.

"Once we started seeing the cracks inside, we realized we were kind of following the same path [as Stacy's home]," she said.

THE NEXT STEP

But there more to this than just the ripped foundations and foreshadowing cracks. There's also a story about the families' lives that are being torn apart.

"Oh it changes everything...everything," Stacy said. "It's heartbreaking. It's really hard. I don't wish this upon anyone, and I don't want anyone to have to do what we've had to do."

"I don't even know going through it if you can really believe it's happening because, to just lose this huge financial investment you've made and it's also your home, it's...disbelief," Leslie said.

Homeowners insurance won't cover the costs for the families who will inevitably lose their home and investment.

"We don't have landslide insurance which is what would cover us," Stacy said. "That wasn't even an option given to us when we bought our lot."

The two women, both mothers and wives, say they don't know what comes next for their families.

"We're real people trying to work through this, just like anybody would, but it's hard," Stacy said. "It's really, really hard."

SLIPPING THROUGH THE CRACKS

Leslie's family and others on this street are now packing up, trying to get out. However, they say support from different agencies involved is slipping through the cracks.

"It just feels like everyone who could help us in this situation has left," Leslie said. "That, I think that to me is the hardest thing to really digest."

The Ada County Highway District closed off the road to Alto Via Court in early May. Since then, homeowners say moving companies have been reluctant to drive down the road to help them move because of insurance concerns. An ACHD spokesman tells KBOI 2News that crews won't be re-opening the road to help homeowners move out unless emergency services facilitated the process, or if the developer took steps to make the road safe and less dangerous.

"We'd just like a little help with some of the basics like getting off of our street," Leslie said. "Plus, any day we could lose our power."

According to Idaho Power, that's because the lines and other equipment servicing the homes on Alto Via Court are underground. A spokeswoman says that the Earth's movement will eventually stress the lines to a point where it will snap. At that point, she tells KBOI 2News that crews will be unable to go up and reconnect the lines or fix any broken equipment considering the safety of employees.

Neighbors though, say they feel as if they're being abandoned, noting that while several different agencies have also said they're working to stop the slide, nothing has been done.

"We're all watching our homes go through this decline and although we're hearing that steps are being taken, there's nothing happening up here, and that's hard to watch," Leslie said.

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