by Nathan Boddy
Members of the Bitterroot Affordable Housing Coalition gave a brief presentation to the Hamilton City Council on Tuesday, May 20. The coalition, which formed in 2016, is comprised of individuals and entities that work within the nonprofit and housing realms in the Bitterroot Valley. It endeavors to find housing solutions for people who face housing insecurity. The Bitterroot Valley, like many parts of western Montana, has faced substantial housing shortages especially in the rapid population growth following the Covid pandemic.
Tomie Martin, who until recently has been a housing specialist with the Human Resource Council, gave the councilors an update about a community shelter program that has been operational for several years having been born out of a previous iteration of a warming shelter developed by Gary Locke. Martin gave thanks to the City of Hamilton for assisting with funds for the program, and to city attorney Karen Mahar for her efforts to see that the program continues to be available to those in need. Martin reported that, during the ‘24-’25 winter season, 76 individuals and a total of 113 nights were provided to people who “had absolutely nowhere else to go.”
Martin pointed out that the shelter program is jointly regulated by the city attorney’s office, the police department, SAFE, Salvation Army and the Human Resource Council, all of which can make referrals so that individuals in need can access the funds in order to find short term shelter.
The councilors also spent some time considering a draft letter that will express the city’s official support of the Trapper Creek Job Corps (TCJC), which may be under threat due to recent passage of the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ by the House of Representatives in Washington last week.
On May 2nd, a letter from Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to the Committee of Appropriations contained the suggested cuts to the Job Corps, with scathing language about the nationwide trades education program.
“The Budget eliminates Job Corps, which has been a failed experiment to help America’s youth—and, in some cases, has harmed them. The program has been plagued by a culture of violence, assault, sex crimes, drug infractions, and death. A 2017 GAO report found there were nearly 50,000 reported safety violations and 265 deaths in just 10 years of the program.”
The text goes on before concluding, “This program has often made participants worse off, which is severely misaligned with the President’s priority to improve job opportunities and economic growth for all Americans.”
While the city council has not finalized their letter in support of the Job Corps, most councilors were able to express very clear instances where members of the Job Corps have been of great assistance within the valley’s communities. The letter they are crafting, which will be addressed to U.S. Secretary of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, will endeavor to make it clear that the benefits of the Job Corps, while often felt locally, are also a benefit to the national economy as a whole.
In other business, the city council also heard a second reading of an ordinance which will amend the Hamilton Municipal Code in regards to how it calculates rebate recovery agreements.
A rebate recovery for municipal sewer and water services is a tool that can be used to pay back a portion of the expense that developers incur when extending these municipal services to a previously unserviced area. It is understood that, as secondary development occurs, those secondary developments are benefitted by the presence of the previously installed lines. Some portion of the hookup fees that the secondary development pays for access to the utilities can be rebated back to the initial developer who paid for installation of the lines. With the new ordinance, the City of Hamilton hopes to bring its recovery agreement calculations closer in line with state standards.
The councilors also welcomed Rebecca Scoggins as the new City Clerk, replacing Rosie Ramer who has taken the position of Accounting Clerk with the city’s Finance Department. Scoggins will begin her new position on June 2nd.