BOZEMAN, Mont. – The Bozeman City Commission gave the city’s first-ever Affordable Housing Tour on Monday to show progress being made.
Dozens of people arrived at City Hall and jumped into the iconic yellow Streamline Bus to embark on a tour of the city housing projects being worked on in the last couple of years. Many stand anxiously waiting because this is the first tour of its kind.
In the past, the commission has held tours to showcase the work being done in the parks but never the progress being made in housing. Mayor Cyndy Andrus thought it was important to change that, which is why she brought up the idea to Community Development Director Marty Matsen.
“We are continually trying to make sure that we include the community in our efforts especially along affordable housing and I think this is one of the ways we are doing that,” said Andrus.
Living affordably isn’t always easy when the median home in Bozeman is priced at more than $400,000. Organizations like HRDC and Habitat for Humanity partner with the city to price homes more reasonably for lower income families.
One of the projects HRDC and the city partnered on was the Humble Homes project. This project took two oddly shaped parcels on the corner of 24th Ave. and Beall St. and built two tiny homes. The first tiny home is just over 300 sq ft and is listed at $140,000. The second home is about 600 sq ft and was recently sold for around $175,000.
Even though the city showed off the success stories through community projects, the challenges were also noted. These include but are not limited to finding parcels of land and the battle for low-income dual tax credits.
“So we competing with other communities that have every bit as much of a need as we do and just finding the partners and the resources to get the project up and going,” said Matsen.
Since the city currently is without an affordable housing manager, the next person to step into this role will have to come up with solutions to these problems.
HRDC did say the non-profit is still working on getting the tiny homes village up and running, which begins with finding a parcel of land for the project.
