Mayor Engen, Panel to Discuss Affordable Housing Thursday

By Dillon Tabish, 3-11-08

Is affordable housing an important issue in Missoula? Mayor John Engen thinks so.

“If the folks who work here can’t afford to live here, then this isn’t Missoula anymore,” he says.

Residents are invited to a public discussion about housing in Missoula with Mayor Engen and four panelists this Thursday at 7:00 PM in the City Council chambers. The Mayor’s goal is to find out if affordable housing is a significant issue for Missoulians. He also hopes to put behind possible ill will and mistrust from the city’s past dealings with housing growth and start a constructive discussion once again.

“I think there’s some sense that affordable housing is barracks projects for poor people and that’s not our difficulty in Missoula today,” says Engen, in his second year as mayor. “Our difficulty is working men and women; young families who’d like some opportunity to own a home, have equity in a home and put roots in the community. Those opportunities just don’t exist the way they did even fifteen or twenty years ago.”

According to a 2007 report by the Missoula Organization of Realtors, the median home price in Missoula’s city limits jumped to $205,000, and the Housing Affordability Index for Missoula dropped to 65 percent, meaning the average family in Missoula had 65 percent of the income required to buy that median-priced home.

A short video titled “Housing in Missoula: A Community Conversation” will kick things off Thursday evening, followed by a local panel that will focus on four central questions: Who needs affordable housing in Missoula? Where is housing appropriate? What should housing look like? And how do we as a community help pay for affordable housing?

Mayor Engen hopes Thursday’s get-together will generate questions and suggestions that will move the community forward in the right direction.

“This is Step One of a long road paved with good intentions that I hope helps us at least start to address some of the challenges,” says Mayor Engen. “And that’s the best that we can do today, is work at it.”