Housing problem discussed, several ideas generated
Kristi Niemeyer
County commissioner Bill Barron discusses housing challenges with State Representative Linda Reksten and Polson city planner Juan Escano.
Kristi Niemeyer
Brian Miskimins, far left, moderated a panel on housing that included Jody Perez, Juan Escano, Linda Reksten, Bill Barron and Ed Meece. Videographer David King has made a video of the full meeting available online at: https://www.cityofpolson.com/planning. Click the word LINK highlighted in brown.
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Blodgett Creamery in Polson hosted an unusual mix of community members last Thursday, including business owners, contractors, developers, realtors, home owners and renters, all looking for answers to the Mission Valley’s housing crisis.
They left with no concrete solutions, but a fistful of ideas from five panelists, including Jody Perez, executive director of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Housing Authority, Polson City manager Ed Meece and city planner Juan Escano, county commissioner Bill Barron and state representative Linda Reksten. Polson Chamber president Brian Miskimins, a DJ and salesman for Anderson Broadcasting moderated the two-hour session.
In opening remarks, Perez spoke of housing stock being “swooped up” and Escano described the paucity of affordable housing as a “tsunami.”
According to Barron, the county’s population has grown by 3,100 in the past year. “We’ve had some steady growth, but not high. The big shot has been since COVID hit.”
He noted that Vacation Rentals by Owners are on the upswing, estimating nearly 475 exist across the county. Although zoning regulations largely prohibit those on lands governed by the county, “we don’t have the manpower to deal with it.” He added that the increase in people has led to higher demand for law enforcement. “Calls for services have just skyrocketed.”
Reksten pointed out that lack of affordable housing isn’t just a Lake County issue, “it’s a Montana problem.” While the Legislature has committed $15 million in Coal Tax severance funds to housing, most of it went to eastern Montana. “We need to have a louder voice about where the money is being allocated,” she said.
One woman said her family had moved away a decade ago “because we couldn’t afford to live here,” and when they moved back in 2018, she discovered, “I still can’t afford to live here.” She mentioned rental options that range from paying $1,300 a month for an 800-square-foot “shack,” to $3,000 for a house the landlord claimed could bring $5,000 a month. “What working family can afford that?”
Karen Dunwell, chairman of the Polson Redevelopment Agency and president of the local historical museum, said in the 1950s, most of the second floor spaces above Main Street businesses housed apartments. Now, most are used for storage. She also pointed out that Polson has vacant lots and boarded-up houses “that could be rehabilitated, spruced up, or even bulldozed if necessary.”
“How do we get the people who own these properties to turn them into affordable rentals or affordable housing?” she asked the panel.
Becky Dupuis, co-owner of Polson Theatres, sought a clearer definition of “affordable housing.” When employees make $12 an hour, or around $2,000 a month, she wondered how they can afford to pay $1,200 a month for rent or mortgage payments.
Perez noted that “the sweet spot” for tribal members to buy a house is a price range of $100,000-$125,000. “Right now it’s three or four times that.”
“We’re going the wrong way, and I don’t know how to stop that,” she added. “It’s supply and demand and the market has inflated beyond our local ability to purchase those homes.”
As for rent, the tribes have paid out nearly $1 million through the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program to help people who lost income during the pandemic.
Builders also chimed in, voicing frustration with the city’s labyrinth of regulations. “It takes us longer to get a permit than it takes us to actually build a house,” complained Mike Maddy of Ridgewater Development. “With a new house requiring up to six permits, “if you want to get stuff built you have to streamline processes.”
Another developer, Hans Lund of Traditional Homes, noted that even if he could build so-called “tiny homes” for $60,000, impact fees could add up to $12,000 on top of that. “So to rent that for $500 a month just doesn’t work.”
He wondered if impact fees could be scaled to the project, so those building affordable homes would pay less than those building million-dollar houses.
City manager Meece defended impact fees. “If we do away with them, the customer who has been on the system for a long time will end up paying increased rates.” As to streamlining permitting, he said the planning department is dedicated to making the process more efficient without sacrificing housing quality and safety.
Tim McGinnis, a realtor who once served on the city/county planning board, backed consistent regulations that are not open to reinterpretation. “Two things developers hate are risk and the unknown. Tell them what you need them to do and be precise about it and they’ll have no problem with it. But when you get ambiguity, especially in a special-use permit, that’s a problem.”
In addition to improving the permitting process, potential solutions that city government is exploring include high-quality pre-fab housing; creating incentive programs for affordable housing within its Tax Increment Financing district; and investing in training programs that build and retain a larger workforce of plumbers, electricians and carpenters.
Perez said the tribes are also looking at tiny houses and manufactured homes, “but we still need somewhere to put them, with power, water and sewer.”
She’s determined to get a handle on the girth of the problem by completing a reservation-wide housing assessment by the end of 2021. She noted that the cities of Polson and Ronan are on board, and she hopes other communities will choose to participate as well.
Consultants will help compose a script, devise a database, and organize focus groups. “I’m asking for boots on the ground, so we can make decisions based on data,” she said.
“We need some short-term fast solutions to come out of this study,” said Dunwell. “Give us a temporary solution for the people who have been displaced and are scrambling, then look at more comprehensive, serious recommendations on how to reshape the housing market here so it has an affordable element to it.”
Although gathering data about the housing crisis is essential to solving it, Meece promised that city government would avoid over-analyzing the problem. “We’re going to try some things. If they work, they work. If they don’t we’ll go back and shut it down,” he said. “Some of this will be like changing the tire while the car is rolling.”
