Our Founder
Tim Flaherty
Tim grew up in Idaho during the 80's. It was in the wilderness of Idaho that Tim learned to hike, hunt, and fish. His love of the outdoors is well known among his friends as he enjoys most outdoor activities including river rafting, camping, and down hill skiing. In the year 2000 Tim moved to Boise to pursue a degree in Finance at Boise State University. (Go Broncos!)
As a young entrepreneur Tim worked in banking and invested in a number of successful start ups. During the crash of 2008, Tim was involved in an illegal stock purchase which ended his career abruptly. He took responsibility for his actions and served 17 months at FPC Sheridan, where he did a lot of soul searching as one might expect.
After his release from FPC Sheridan, Tim saw the world in a different light and sought to make a change in his profession. You can imagine this series of events altered the course of Tim's life and he felt called to a life of service.
As it would happen, Tim took a job at a homeless shelter. He worked at the shelter for years and during this time he helped hundreds of people make a plan, find employment, save money and finally move out of the shelter into stable housing. With this track record, Tim created the phenomenally successful STEP program* (Shelter Transition Exit Program), under his direction, exits from the shelter to stable employment and housing quadrupled from 2015 to 2017.
In 2017 Tim quit his job at the homeless shelter and founded a 501c3 nonprofit. He named this new nonprofit after the Greek word for homeless, Astegos. (Astegos.org). Tim's aim was to help fill the gap in services provided in the community.
Tim recruited friends, family, businessmen, artists, retirees, doctors and nurses to serve on the board of directors. He immediately began feeding and meeting the basic needs of the homeless on the streets. Paying special attention to the homeless families and those individuals who are not allowed into the shelters due to being banned for their bad behavior. Tim and his team feed hundreds of meals each week to those in need.
In May of 2017, just months after launching Astegos, Inc., Tim opened his first transitional housing program that continues today. Approximately 20 individuals are served each year by this program. Participants are assisted with Job Search and Life Skills, among other services. They are required to pass weekly drug screening, be employed, and save money for their eventual exit from the program.
In 2022, Tim partnered with Good360 to open a Community Warehouse. A 14,000 square foot space stocked with brand new items available to Teachers, Schools, Churches and Nonprofits. (Click here for a Membership application)
After nearly a decade of working to solve the problem of homelessness, in October of 2022, Tim was appointed Commissioner of the Boise City Ada County Housing Authority by the Ada County Commission. His appointment was ratified unanimously by the Boise City Council on November 15th, 2022.
Contact Tim via Email: tim@astegos.org