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With the success of Bozeman’s Affordable Housing Ordinance, we need to double down, not retreat

Heather Grenier

Bozeman’s people are what make this place special. Unfortunately, Bozeman’s shortage of attainable homes is making it harder and harder for our friends and neighbors to stay. As the median home sales price in Bozeman hovers around $750,000, few households can make the leap into first-time homeownership and confront ever-rising rental costs.

On the rental side of the picture, a household would need to earn $100,000 a year to comfortably afford rent — well over the median annual income of renter households at $50,829.

Building more homes affordable to people living and working in Bozeman supports a strong community. When our teachers, service workers, trades professionals, first responders, healthcare workers, and more can afford to live in the communities where they work, we protect the culture that makes Bozeman thrive. When our local workforce is able to live in our community, they have shorter commutes and more time to spend volunteering, engaging in local activities, and with their families.

We know there is no single policy solution to address our shortfall in attainable homes; we need a comprehensive strategy that produces new homes, preserves existing housing, and protects people renting and purchasing homes. The City of Bozeman’s Affordable Housing Ordinance aims to increase the supply of homes affordable to people earning local wages and protect renters from sudden cost increases. The ordinance provides a multiplier effect to the work being done by organizations like ours by strongly incentivizing private builders to include rent-restricted homes that are affordable to working-class Bozeman residents.

With a pipeline of over 1,600 homes, the ordinance is proving to be a useful tool in the City’s toolbox to be paired with additional policies and programs. In a recent presentation to the City’s Economic Vitality Board, City staff suggested useful and targeted improvements to this ordinance. Some of those improvements include deepening the affordability targets, allowing income averaging, extending the period of affordability, and creating additional standards for rental apartments.

Suggested changes also include edits to the incentives offered and discussions on height limits. Two elements of the revamped Affordable Housing Ordinance worth highlighting are the benefits of local incentives targeting renters at 60-80% of the area median income and the land swap component. Lowering the maximum rent within the AHO, as the city has proposed, will help Bozeman renters. This change removes gaps in the existing suite of housing solutions and picks up where other programs leave off to address our community’s housing needs.

The largest federal program to create rent-restricted housing in the United States, the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, provides subsidies for rentals below 60% of the area median income. Bozeman’s AHO comes in to support renter households with incomes too high to quality for LIHTC but too low to afford market-rate rentals — a critical need.

Another component of this ordinance that could meaningfully improve Bozeman’s housing opportunities for both rental and homeownership is the land swap option. Through the targeted use of incentives, a substantial number of homes could be created in cases where, without this ordinance, zero below-market homes would be created. Land received from the land swap option creates opportunities not just to add a few rent-restricted homes within new development but a possible blank slate to replicate proven models, such as leveraging LIHTC or creating neighborhoods of community land trust homes. The land could also be used to re-imagine community housing through mixed-income housing or other creative solutions that meet the needs of our community. Bozeman’s Affordable Housing Ordinance has done what many cities aspire to do, but few cities pull off: build attainable community housing without a significant commitment of taxpayer dollars.

With this success and the ongoing need, we need to double down, not retreat. We are urging the City Commission to protect the AHO, to keep what is working, and to take opportunities to improve the ordinance to better meet the needs of working households and those on fixed incomes in Bozeman.

We look forward to the Commission’s decision.

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Brooke Poole

Public Sector

Since 2015, Brooke has been working with Allergan Aesthetics, Body Contouring. In 2018, Brooke began her role as Senior Manager of Training. Brooke graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Commercial Photography from Appalachian State University in 2011.

Brooke began her role on our Board in 2019. However, she feels it’s more fitting to say that she gets to serve on our Board. For Brooke, an evening at our Fork & Spoon was her first glance into our organization’s powerful work. As Brooke states, joining the Board has only expanded her appreciation for the caliber of people leading our mission and the impact of our vast ecosystem of services. While metrics alone are impressive, Brooke likes to visualize each number as an individual example of support – an extension of a helping hand, a moment of relief – given to one of our neighbors. She is grateful for the opportunity to participate in shaping HRDC’s future.

Although Brooke spends most of her volunteer time with HRDC, she was fortunate enough to build with Habitat for Humanity over the course of the summer in 2020. Her favorite place to spend time is anywhere under the Big Sky, although Hyalite may be her favorite place on Earth.

Ron Brey

Public Sector

Ron served as Bozeman’s Assistant City Manager from 1990 to 2008. After retiring, Ron joined our Board in 2011. Ron received his Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Montana in 1977, and his Masters in Science in Rural, Town, and Regional Planning from the University of Montana in 1987.

During his time with the City of Bozeman, Ron saw the important role that HRDC has played in our community. Ron has seen that HRDC provides necessary social services to assure that all Bozeman residents could obtain housing, food, training, employment and the other necessities of life. He also came to understand that HRDC was always able to respond immediately as new community needs arose. Ron believes that the dedication, hard work, and compassion of HRDC’s staff make it a real honor to serve on the Board.

Ron also serves on the Trails, Open Space and Parks Committee for the City of Bozeman, and as a volunteer with the Red Cross. One of Ron’s favorite activities is walking his beloved dog every day, enjoying many of Bozeman’s trails and parks, like Burke Park, Bozeman Creek, and the Hyalite and Mount Ellis areas. Ron and his wife Claire enjoy spending their days with family, friends, and time outdoors.