HELENA — The Helena Housing Task Force met Wednesday morning to discuss plans in trying to create more affordable housing in Lewis and Clark County.
"If we don't address the permanent housing needs, it's really hard to get it recognized as the emergency that it is with an earthquake or a flooding or some other or wildfire," said Helena Housing Authority Executive Director, Michael O'Neil.
In 2018, the Tri-County Housing Needs Assessment was formed, collecting and distributing information on housing trends and needs for the wider Helena region, including Lewis and Clark, Jefferson, and Broadwater Counties.
They found that the housing market is extremely tight at all levels, with limited availability and high prices.
"We have seen studios for $1,200 a month. There was on the other end of it a five-bedroom house or family was $5,000. So there's quite a range. People are struggling in between to be able to do that, especially when we're talking with people with these low incomes," said Good Samaritan Ministries Executive Director, Theresa Ortega.
With the concern about the rising cost of housing prices, the city then established the affordable housing trust fund in 2020.
The purpose of the fund is to provide gap financing to organizations, both non-profit and for-profit, to help with housing for people with low to moderate income.
The fund was initially created through several investments from the city commission and will receive $100,000 each year from the city's general fund.
"The city might look to try and direct the use of the affordable housing trust funds if they're already available after the spring cycle to really try to address the needs that are found from looking at updated data," said City of Helena Senior Planner, Ellie Ray.
An application period opened last fall and closed in mid-November.
Now a new round of applications for the housing trust fund will open at the beginning of March, and the deadline for submissions will be on April 13th.
The City Housing Task Force's next meeting will be on March 15th.
