Missoula’s updated housing strategy eyes funding, infill
Martin Kidston
(Missoula Current) Plans to update the City of Missoula's housing strategy could help streamline the development of affordable housing and result in new strategies that acknowledge the challenges while addressing supply.
While the city can do little to manipulate the cost of development and median home prices, it can take a proactive approach to affordable housing and work to preserve what housing stock is already available.
“The housing market continues to experience a variety of challenges,” said Parker Webb, the city's housing policy specialist. “There are some positive changes recently, but there are still a lot of challenges.”
Webb said the original housing strategy, adopted in 2019, established a “cohesive” strategy for the city to address the barriers to affordable housing. But since the plan's adoption, home prices have continued to climb, outpacing any increase in wages.
Now, acknowledging the challenges on the housing front, the city will work to identify where it can make the greatest impact. It will also work to simplify its housing strategies and address the funding constraints that limit progress on the affordable housing front.
“We want to have as much impact as we can with limited funds,” said Webb. “This is primarily tied to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. It's very well set up for significant impact once it's sufficiently funded.”
Currently, however, the trust is not well funded, forcing the city to work through “a constrained lens,” Webb said. The fund was established as part of the original housing strategy but has been limited in its ability to support projects.
“The highest priority for the city and it's housing team is to implement a sustainable funding source to the trust fund,” Webb said. “It's well positioned to provide substantial support to accomplish city-wide housing goals. But it's never been appropriately funded to the scale needed to achieve those goals.”
That could change moving forward, Webb said. The city owns a number of properties that, upon their sale, could feed into the trust fund. The sale of the Riverfront Triangle in downtown Missoula, which is set to close next month, would provide a $4 million investment into the fund – the largest in the fund's history.
In addition to sale proceeds, Averill Hospitality has committed to a 1% contribution to the fund from the sale of goods within its hotel. The city is looking at other voluntary fee programs that could provide the fund with a similar revenue stream.
That may also include a potential ballot initiative.
“We're working on changes that may have to happen if we see a large amount of money come into the trust fund,” Webb said. “But the timing of how that money (from the Riverfront sale) comes in is staggered over time. It's not one lump sum. It's not of immediate interest, but it's something we're working on.”
Exploring opportunities
Other recommended strategies in the updated plan include preserving what affordable housing already exists, helping others gain access to affordable housing, and tracking progress over time.
Infill development will also play a role – something addressed in the new Unified Development Code.
“If there's an opportunity for the city to make infill development more feasible, then it's something we should pursue,” said Webb. “It doesn't necessarily need to be developing affordable housing on site. We can have a land sale later where the money goes into the trust fund so we can develop in a more opportune location rather than scattered sites.”
The housing team will also build off the recommendations of the mayor's redevelopment task force on city land. Ensuring local building inspectors are up to speed on the requirements for modular housing may also come into play, along with continued advocacy for low-income tax credits.
“There is no silver bullet to addressing the housing crises,” said Webb. “We're trying to balance simplification with a myriad of strategies to respond to changing conditions.”
Members of City Council have also offered potential strategies, including off-the-shelf plans for accessory dwelling units and ensuring the Missoula Housing Authority has first right of refusal on city-owned lands earmarked for redevelopment.
“Their operating agreement with city functions more or less as a first right of refusal on city-owned lands for potential development,” said council member Mike Nugent. “That could be a scenario where there's an entity we're already partners with that may need help acquiring (land) and we can help them get there.”
While the updated housing strategy has gained broad support, it's not unanimous. Council member Bob Campbell expressed concern with several portions of the plan.
“I see a lot in this plan that a lot of people can get behind. But I do have concerns about some of the action items that I think lean to heavily on the taxpayers of Missoula,” Campbell said. “I'm deeply concerned that the City of Missoula is going to go down this road of getting into the real estate business, the development business, where the city has no business getting into.”