Kalispell Council holds work session on housing

Kalispell City Council will hold a work session to discuss housing Monday.

The meeting is a result of a request from the Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana (CAPN) to present information related to housing in the community. Council asked for the work session to provide a dedicated opportunity for the organization to debrief members.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the City Hall, 201 First Avenue East.

CAPN is a nonprofit organization that provides social services and advocacy aimed at alleviating poverty and improving lives. One of the program areas focuses on housing.

If needed, city staff will be on hand to share relevant information regarding current housing projects in the municipality, including developments that are being produced for a variety of levels of housing.

Over the past decade Kalispell rental housing has been below 2% vacancy rate and at or near 0% vacancy rates at certain times, according to the city. Limited availability of housing has driven home prices and rental rates up by double digits such that wages are no longer sufficient to cover housing costs at 30% of household income. Housing is considered affordable when it is no more than 30% of the household’s gross income, including rent or mortgage payments, utilities, property tax and insurance.

A market study in 2021 conducted for Junegrass Place, a deed-restricted affordable housing project slated for Kalispell’s North Meridian Road, found that all existing income-restricted residential developments in Kalispell are 100% occupied. In addition, all have a waiting list ranging up to 25 names for senior housing and between 40 to more than 100 names on the family residential developments.

That same study found that rent in the area has increased by 18% to 33% from July 2020 to July 2021.

Council on Oct. 3 chose to postpone a proposal to expand the ability for workforce housing projects to apply for city tax increment finance funding. Developers can still ask the city for funds to be directed to the infrastructure costs of a project, but the proposed change would have expanded that to allow for a developer to apply for funds as a way to assist with the vertical construction costs.

Features Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.