Is A Public Housing Authority Right For Bozeman?
Bozeman is rapidly growing, and we are also in a growing housing crisis. Most of our solutions have been to try to incentivize or subsidize private developers to create more housing in hopes that more housing will equal more affordable housing eventually.
We don't have enough affordable housing in Bozeman because, in a lot of ways, the city's hands are tied. The city cannot implement rent control, meaning that landlords can hike up rent significantly from one month to the next. The city cannot mandate requirements for private developers or landlords to have low-income units, meaning that we continue to use public funds to subsidize landlords and developers to maintain their profits. The city cannot mandate that LIHTC (Low Income Housing Tax Credit) units are kept affordable in perpetuity, meaning there is always a threat that we will lose affordable units each year. But the city CAN have local control on development if the city establishes a Public Housing Authority and starts creating its own supply of affordable housing.
With our own Public Housing Authority (PHA), we can access a sustainable model of social housing, where the city can set the rents for their own developments and the reasonably-priced rents can go back to maintaining the building and investing in more affordable housing, rather than being pocketed by for-profit developers. When the city is the developer, the city can choose to keep the housing affordable forever, rather than subsidizing private landlords for a limited time. The city can decide the priorities for housing and build based on needs, not based on profits. Rather than hoping that others will do so, our PHA can build housing around local priorities and needs - including developing in a way that meets crucial water and sustainability standards, developing in areas that make sense to develop, and creating communities welcoming to workers, families, and pets.
With a PHA, any development using public funds would be open to public input and scrutiny.
Currently, we have public funds being given to private organizations or developers in the way of TIF, LIHTC, or grants to nonprofits or the Gallatin Housing Impact Fund, but private companies and nonprofits are not held to the same standard of accessibility and transparency as public agencies. That means that these public funds that are given out may end up going to developers that skirt labor or safety laws, or to agencies that don't have public meetings that allow for public comment and input.
I believe a Public Housing Authority will increase local control and allow for the residents of Bozeman to have more input with how our city develops and addresses our housing crisis. The City of Bozeman will be discussing establishing a PHA at their City Commission meeting on December 12th.
Guest Commentary by Natsuki Nakamura
For more information:
There will be a public information session to provide an introduction to social housing / a PHA for next Thursday, Novovember 16 at 6:30 pm at Low Brow Burgers
The Bozeman DSA website has FAQs About Social Housing