Ada County's First Humanitarian Award goes to Bill Roscoe

On the last day of September, KIDO radio host, Kevin Miller welcomed invited guests and media to the Ada County Courthouse to share anecdotal stories and personal connections with Reverend Bill Roscoe, award winner for Ada County Inaugural Humanitarian Award. The special thing about this award is that it was actually named after Roscoe himself.

Roscoe is known for his years of leadership of the Boise Rescue Mission Ministries, where he served as president and CEO for about 24 years. In those years, he has been involved heavily in homeless services and even started the Mission’s Veterans Transitional Housing program. This program has helped hundreds of local veterans find their place here in our community.

If we were to ask Roscoe what the key tackling the homeless issues here in Ada county is, he would quickly respond to counseling and the need for more mental health resources here in the Treasure Valley. Roscoe truly believes counseling gives people a safe environment, a place to start fresh and an opportunity to right their wrongs.

Guest speaker and Ada County Commission Chairman, Rod Beck shared his wonderful experience working with Roscoe over the years. He highlighted his work with homeless services and the Boise Rescue Mission. In 2024 Roscoe led the Rescue Mission’s development of transitional housing, including the Next Step facility on Curtis Roads in Boise. This project successfully added 60 transitional-housing units, and doubled the transitional-housing capacity at the time. Beck and the other Ada County commissioners later toured a Rescue Mission transitional-housing facility with Roscoe.

The last guest speaker, Director of Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities (BCACHA), Deanna Watson who also shared her wonderful experience working alongside Roscoe. They appear together numerous times in BCACHA board meetings and official business. Watson has been involved in Ada County’s homelessness system and Our Path home. One of their biggest connections is through Roscoe’s Boise Rescue Mission, which has been a major provider of shelter and transitional housing.

Roscoe was honored, humbled, and never thought he would’ve had an award named after him. He gave the spotlight to his wife and mentioned how much support and love he received from her. He made sure to thank everybody that came out that evening in support and did so personally with his beloved wife.