Affordable housing assessment: ‘We are in a crisis’

Last week the Bitterroot Affordable Housing Coalition presented the Ravalli County Commissioners an update on their 2019 assessment of the county’s needs with respect to homelessness and housing insecurity that could be summed up in a few words, and was, by Stacey Umhey, Executive Director of Supporters for Abuse Free Environments (SAFE): “We are in a crisis.” She said the crisis that generated the organization’s first emergency shelters back in 2016 has only grown worse during the pandemic as real estate values have skyrocketed and available homes or rentals of any kind have become scarce or out of the reach for an average wage earner. As one member of the public who arrived relatively recently put it, “It’s getting so the people who work here can’t afford to live here.” He said he had seen it happen time and time again in communities in Colorado where he lived for a long time.

Jim Morton, Executive Director of District XI of the Human Resource Council serving Mineral, Missoula and Ravalli Counties, spoke on behalf of the coalition, saying that homelessness is not always immediately apparent in more rural areas where people are not sleeping on the sidewalks in town, but may be in the local campgrounds, or in a tent on some friend’s property, or in their RV, or they’ve moved in with some relatives. Morton called it “doubling up.” 

Then there are the many others who do still have a home, maybe for another month… maybe not. These are the people living with “housing insecurity.” According to Morton, the rule of thumb is that a person should not be spending more than 30% of their income on a home payment. Renters should not be paying more than 50% of their income or they fall into this category. After that you start cutting into the other essentials that a person needs to live, like food and medicine. And if something should happen, like getting laid off, or ill, or injured, or your vehicle breaking down then… you join the homeless.

He said when you are living on the line like that anything can go wrong and suddenly put you on a downward spiral that it is hard to pull out of. The impacts begin to cascade. Morton said he hoped the updated needs assessment would inspire a community dialogue on the topic.

Jamie Ogden, who has worked at the Bitterroot College for a number of years, told the commissioners that many of the 150 to 200 students who she saw come through the college were either housing insecure or homeless. She said almost all of them faced some sort of housing insecurity or risk of homelessness.

“A lot of them were spending 50% to 100% of their earnings on rent,” she said. “I’d like them to find a place in our community.” She said the urgency now was greater than ever and the usual solutions are not going to be enough.

Tomie Martin, a housing specialist in rental assistance, said that landlords in the community have always been willing in the past to offer some people a break on rent. “But what has changed is that there are simply no available affordable rentals out there. My clients can’t compete for those places.” She said many seek out temporary housing in RVs. She said a KOA opened south of Hamilton with 24 full hookup sites and five partials. They now have 40 sites and all are full.  She said over a dozen of the families living there have children.

“We need permanent affordable housing,” said Martin. “There are no places left and the campgrounds are full.”

Clarissa Carmona from SAFE said that their facility is maxed out. The organization offers emergency shelter, Rapid Rehousing and transitional housing units that can serve 40 families and 78 children but they were having to turn people away.

Umhey, SAFE’s executive director, said that this was the second year that SAFE has had to return grant funds used for paying for housing because no housing was available. She said that the local hospital was having trouble finding staff and professionals due to lack of housing availability.

She called on the community to get involved and help develop some ideas on how the community can address these issues.

“The problems are becoming more challenging. We need to get in front of that,” said Umhey.

Local businessman Jim Olsen said additional investment into low-income housing and development of an affordable rental environment were the long-term solution. He also told of three cases in which people he knew, due primarily to health issues, were driven into homelessness and finally into leaving the valley.

Another gentleman suggested enacting a small tax to support the homeless and housing insecure. He also suggested setting up a Community Land Trust to provide permanent funding.

Local builder Ran Pigman said that he believed affordable apartments ought to be on the top of the to do list to accommodate the workforce in a sustainable fashion.

Commissioner Dan Huls thanked the coalition members for their work and for the informative presentation and said, “I’m committed to working in this direction.”

Commissioner Jeff Burrows said that he had heard some concerns about a homeless shelter attracting the problem rather than addressing it. He called the, “If you build it they will come,” idea “a legitimate concern.”