Extension webinar talks about housing solutions

In a Tuesday webinar, “Where to Start on Housing in Your Community,” moderator and presenter Tara Mastel, a community development specialist for Montana State University Extension, said that most areas across the U.S. are experiencing a housing crisis, but rural Montana has different challenges that require different solutions, which can all be aided by getting off on the right foot.

“Housing is really technical, it’s very expensive and it’s a complex problem with lots of different solutions,” she said. And the people with the expertise to tackle the problem are located in cities so people in rural communities need to rely on each other to find and implement solutions.

Presenters at the webinar, first in a four-part series addressing practical responses to the housing crisis across Montana’s rural landscape, provided tips and wisdom from their efforts in Boulder and Gardiner working together with community members to help alleviate their respective communities’ housing problem.

The simple version of what the presenters said needs to be done is to call together people that represent as much of a cross-section of the community as is possible, compile a list of housing needs, formulate solutions, cultivate assets and develop a plan of action.

In Boulder, a town of about 1,200 people between Helena and Butte, Mastel was one of the people who, in 2006, initiated the effort to address the housing shortage because she had moved there for her Extension job but had trouble finding a place to live. She said she and fellow organizers contacted a wide array of people and ended up with 22 people at the first meeting representing teachers, bankers, local government, clergy, renters, seniors, homeowners, workers and more.

In the end, the group partnered with a nonprofit group with housing grant money that helped them purchase land in the city and get construction underway using mutual self-help construction programs, including Habitat for Humanity.

Bill Berg, a businessman and now Park County Commissioner, and Katie Weaver, an Extension specialist in community-based leadership, have been working since 2014 with a community-led housing group in Gardiner, an unincorporated community of a little more than 800 people at the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

The pair said they also have a diverse group addressing the housing issue, including the Greater Gardiner Community Council, area business owners, Gardiner Chamber of Commerce, Gardiner School District, Park County and local nonprofits. Because of their proximity to Yellowstone National Park, the list includes U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and Xanterra.

Berg, though, credited the area parents, concerned that housing scarcity was adding to difficulties finding and retaining teachers, as major drivers in the group’s efforts to define problems and find solutions.

The pair said that early on they got access to another community’s tools for needs assessment and planning and from this developed a draft of a plan. They have some land purchased but are still working on development of the property.

Major flooding in the area this summer both sidelined and could potentially aid their efforts, Berg said. Community efforts have gone toward disaster recovery of physical structures and the local economy that lost out on expected tourism dollars, but FEMA used their Draft Needs Assessment and Housing Plan to guide their efforts in helping the community and bringing in extra funding and assistance.

While the problems, solutions and timelines are different in each of the communities their words of wisdom are the same.

• Take the time and effort to formalize the group, whether as a local government-sanctioned entity or as a non-profit foundation or something else. Recognizable credibility will open doors.

• Get a good cross-section of community members and partners because the housing problem is large and complex and involves everyone. Different perspectives and collaboration are needed to see the big picture and to come up with better solutions. Also, you never know who has connections to assets.

• Work toward your priorities, but also pay attention to opportunities.

• Even if you have a great group of people, the group needs someone to do the footwork and to oversee the many working parts.

• Start with a clear and open-minded understanding of where the community is on Day 1.

• Think outside the box, try things with the understanding that not all avenues will lead to success, and expect that this process will take time.

• And remember that the only way a problem this large is solved is through cooperation.

The webinars are hosted in partnership between MSU Extension and NeighborWorks Montana, a public nonprofit that provides home-ownership education, counseling and legal and financial assistance.

The next three are:

Nov. 30: Improving Aging Housing Stock, Maintaining Supply.

Jan. 25: Developing New Homes, Increasing Supply.

Feb. 22: TBD based on interest of participants.

Access to MSU Extension information and housing webinar registration and recordings can be found at https://msuextension.org/communitydevelopment/mt_housing.html .