Cornerstone Cottage opened in 2016 in Post Falls, Idaho, a booming bedroom community 25 miles east of Spokane. While from the outside, the building could be mistaken for a suburban home, Post Falls police received 321 calls from Cornerstone Cottage from 2017 to 2022. (Erick Doxey/InvestigateWest)
This story w as first published by InvestigateWest on Feb. 5, 2024.
Cornerstone Cottage, the Idaho youth treatment home featured in several recent InvestigateWest articles detailing alleged child abuse and neglect that took place there, has closed.
Owner Jim Smidt notified the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare on Jan. 25 that Cornerstone was closing the Post Falls facility and discharging the five remaining residents by Jan. 31.
“Thank you for all of your guidance in helping our program grow,” Smidt wrote in the letter addressed to state regulators. “We have made a lot of progress over the years. The decision to close was not an easy one but necessary.”
Idaho investigators repeatedly found kids in danger. Treatment programs faced few consequences.