Partnership Paramount in Building Affordable Housing

By YogeshSimpson, 5-18-07

Montana faces many challenges in providing enough affordable housing for its residents and key to solving them is collaboration among public and private entities. That was one of the prevailing messages of Friday morning’s sessions of the affordable housing conference at the Holiday Inn Parkside in Missoula. “The Price of Paradise,” was a two-day conference hosted by the Burton K. Wheeler Center.

“If you take away nothing else away from this, recognize the need to form partnerships,” said Geoff Badenoch, project manager for the Missoula Housing Authority’s Market Square on Russell project in Missoula. “Everyone has to put a shoulder to this wheel.”

Badenoch was part of a panel discussion titled “Montana’s Communities – the Housing Picture Statewide,” which also featured Bob Gauthier of Ahoy Leasing and Development in Ronan, Sheila Rice of Neighborhood Housing Services/NeighborWorks in Great Falls, and Sue Ann Grogan, executive director of the Whitefish Housing Authority.

Badenoch’s presentation focused on the Russell Street project, a 12-acre mixed use development with a total of 276 units, 72 of which would be affordable housing units. The Missoula Housing Authority bought the property with goal of enticing a private company to develop the majority of the property and securing a federal tax credit to build the affordable housing units.

The affordable housing component of the project suffered a major setback in April when the MHA was not awarded the federal tax credits it was relying on. If it is awarded the tax credits next spring Badenoch says construction of the affordable housing units will start in September of 2008.

Construction of the rest of the development could begin as early as next March. Last week the Intermountain Development Company, an arm of the MHA, signed a buy-sell agreement with the Minnesota-based Cornerstone Group to develop the property. 

In his presentation Badenoch also emphasized the importance of density in planning for Missoula’s future. “We’re going to fill up this valley,” he said. “As much as it breaks my heart, we’re going to fill up this valley. In order to slow that we have to embrace density.”

Though he was not speaking on behalf of any specific tribes Bob Gauthier addressed the housing problems facing Montana’s Indian tribes. He said that he had conducted his own informal poll of tribal agencies before Friday’s conference and discovered that 4,523 families were on waiting lists for housing throughout Montana’s reservations.

He also said that for every one those families there was a family that could afford a mortgage, but that programs and services to help facilitate home ownership were not available or were not being used.

Gauthier lauded the United States Department of Agriculture for their support of Indian housing programs, but said some tribes are not taking advantage of them.

“Unfortunately many of the tribes have not grasped the hand that’s reaching out to them,” said Gauthier. “It all has to begin with tribal leadership.”

Tribes, he said, are often reluctant to let their members make a profit, but that tribes need to support and sustain members that want to be developers and entrepreneurs. 

Sheila Rice started her presentation with a pitch to get more state funding for housing, saying that Montana is one of only six states that spends $0 on housing programs.

Rice also described the successes and challenges of here organization in Great Falls and her work with the Montana Homeownership Network. MHN provides statewide housing services, including down payment and closing cost assistance, foreclosure prevention programs, and pilot projects for manufactured housing.

Sue Ann Grogan wrapped up the panel presentations by describing how the Whitefish Housing Authority has been wrestling with the skyrocketing housing and land prices in that town. She says that high-end developers are beginning to understand that they can avoid a lot of hassles if they address the city’s demands upfront. 

“The most positive thing we’ve done in Whitefish is move from the ‘why’ build affordable housing to the ‘how’ to build affordable housing,” she said.

The common thread throughout these snapshots of different Montana communities was the need for partnerships among developers, state agencies, nonprofits, lenders, and realtors. As demand continues to outpace the availability of land the affordable housing puzzle becomes more complicated and requiring more pieces to fit together.