Affordable homes in the Flathead?

Grim figures prompt council to look for ways to help out

Kalispell has 28 houses listed for sale for $150,000 or less. Another 57 such houses are listed in Flathead County outside of Kalispell.

But only half of the families in Kalispell can afford them.

A group of housing organizations presented those figures Monday to the Kalispell City Council.

Consequently, the council asked the group whether it was interested in becoming a formal advisory committee on how Kalispell can tackle the affordable-housing problem.

The group's members said yes.

That arrangement likely will be nailed down at a regular council meeting.

"We need to take this to the next level and do something about it," Mayor Pam Kennedy said.

Council member Tim Kluesner said: "Maybe the time is ripe for an affordable-housing summit in the county."

For months, the group of housing officials and experts met periodically to discuss affordable-housing concerns. The council requested the group - which recently named itself the Housing Affordability Ladder - to brief it Monday during a workshop session at which no votes are allowed.

The group painted a portrait of a community in which teachers and firefighters cannot afford to buy homes in the towns where they work.

A family earning $48,000 can afford to buy a $150,000 house. Half the families of four in Kalispell earn $49,100 or less.

"They are your work force," said Jane Leivo, executive director of the local Habitat For Humanity chapter.

"When we lose the service people, we lose growth. We lose 50 percent of the economy. … The economy is gutted. That's where you head in an area that doesn't address housing," said Cal Scott, a Realtor and member of the housing affordability group.

In another wrinkle, Kalispell has the third-highest number of homeless people in Montana behind Billings and Missoula, said Chris Krager of Samaritan House. In fact, Kalispell - with almost 1,500 homeless annually - has more than Helena, Great Falls and Bozeman combined, Krager said.

Samaritan House - the only shelter in a five-county area - had to turn away 183 people in 2003 because it was full. In 2006, the shelter had to turn away 395 people for the same reason.

Many of the homeless have lived in this area for between two and five years, meaning they are not transients, Krager said.

In Montana, 42 percent of homeless people are displaced because of unforeseen financial events, 31 percent are homeless because of mental-health or substance-abuse problems, 19 percent were victims of domestic violence, and 7 percent had unforeseen medical problems.

Flathead County residents can apply for several types of financial assistance for housing through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development program.

But those federal rural-development programs are available only to rural areas or towns with populations less than 20,000.

Kalispell officials estimate that the city recently reached a population of 20,000. That figure will become official to the federal government after the 2010 census, after which Kalispell residents would become ineligible for rural development housing aid, said Mark Schirm, area director of the USDA rural development program.

Avenues discussed Monday to tackle the Kalispell area's affordable-housing crunch included:

. Exploring whether more mobile and manufactured homes should be encouraged.

. Working out arrangements with developers.

. Setting up education programs for public officials, employers and home buyers.

. Setting up programs that target families earning from 80 percent to 125 percent of the area's median income, ensuring that such families don't pay more than 30 percent of their income on their monthly house payments. Median income means 50 percent of an area's families earn more than 50 percent of that figure, and 50 percent earn less than that number.

Whitefish is in worse shape than Kalispell when calculating median incomes. Significantly less than half of Whitefish's households earn less than $48,750.

. Setting up community land trusts, in which an nonprofit organization owns the land and leases it to the family who will own the house on the land.

. Participating in more self-help home-construction programs.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com