Affordable Housing and Homelessness

LATEST: Missoula County, Homeword receive grant funding to address homelessness and incarceration

Missoula County and local housing organization Homeword have been selected to participate in the Just Home Project, a national program to advance community-driven efforts to break the link between homelessness and incarceration led by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Urban Institute.

Missoula County will receive $246,254 to design local intervention strategies to disrupt the cycle of homelessness and continued engagement with the criminal justice system. The planning process will include community and stakeholder engagement to explore the feasibility of building housing for this population and consider other policy changes that could remove their barriers to housing.

At the end of the planning process, Missoula County is eligible for additional funding from the MacArthur Foundation to implement the plan and acquire or develop housing for populations not currently served by existing housing resources. Click here to read more.

Housing Action Plan - Breaking Ground: Missoula County has faced housing affordability challenges for over a decade, but in recent years a housing shortage and growing population have exacerbated the problem. Home prices and rents have increased dramatically more than incomes, and rental vacancy rates have decreased to record lows. Underlying high housing costs is an undersupply of around 2,400 housing units in Missoula County. To help this, in February 2022, the commissioners adopted the Missoula County Housing Action Plan: Breaking Ground. Staff are now working to implement the recommended actions in the plan, which fall under three broad goals:

Use the County’s toolkit – including zoning, infrastructure and use of County lands – to increase the housing supply

Provide more funding for programs to help people access and stay in stable housing

Partner with the City, housing nonprofits and developers to improve policy

As the first step of the Housing Action Plan, in February 2023, the Missoula County commissioners adopted a resolution to establish a Housing Innovation Fund to help support projects and programs that address housing affordability in the county. Learn more about the fund and provide your thoughts on what programs you think the County should fund.

Two broad goals inform Missoula County’s work on housing:

1. Working to keep people in their homes, and
2. Supporting the development of new affordable housing units.

To keep people in their homes (including both renters and homeowners), Missoula County is:

Annually funding housing organizations to provide housing support and prevent homelessness by providing supportive housing, winter rental assistance and helping youth in crisis. This will total more than $750,000 this fiscal year.
Setting aside $750,000 for the Housing Innovation Fund to help support projects and programs that address housing affordability in the county.
Funding programs that support essential but costly home repairs and provide energy efficient upgrades for low-income homeowners.
Working to rehabilitate up to six low-income homes through a housing rehab program totaling more than $300,000.
Preserving existing affordable housing in the county through strategic partnerships, such as the preservation of manufactured home parks for resident ownership.

To support the development of new affordable housing units, Missoula County is:

Working to develop an infrastructure plan for the fast-growing Wye area to expedite the sewer, water, roads and other infrastructure needed to facilitate denser housing development, which helps increase housing stock and bring down prices.
Working to leverage funding from the state and other sources to invest in road, sewer, water and other infrastructure updates to help increase housing options in rural communities, such as Lolo, Bonner, Milltown and Seeley Lake.
Increasing options for down payment assistance by collaborating with local partners and creating new homeownership opportunities in the market.
Setting aside $750,000 for the Housing Innovation Fund to help support new projects and programs that address housing affordability in the county.
Working to improve data collection to improve understanding of housing countywide and how it relates to the different housing needs throughout the county.

Operation Shelter: Missoula County and the City of Missoula are working with community partners to help people experiencing homelessness in our community and to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. Homelessness is complex, and achieving meaningful outcomes requires a creative, multi-faceted approach. County and City government have allocated staff time and funding to address this issue. Missoula County and the City of Missoula stood up an incident management team with operations and logistics expertise to identify and vet potential alternative locations for community members currently camping in the urban wild. The team identified several locations for sites that would be able to accommodate the necessary sanitation, security and staffing.

Temporary Safe Outdoor Space: The most successful example of a project that’s helping transition those who are unhoused into housing is the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space, which is a safe, healthy, secure, staffed (24/7) environment currently located on private land that serves, with dignity, up to 40 people experiencing homelessness who are not accessing existing services or resources. A goal of the TSOS is to offer people experiencing homelessness a safe space and link them to appropriate, sustainable housing. The TSOS was relocated in January 2023 to County-owned land near the detention facility on Mullan and Broadway, and now has small, hard-sided pallet shelters where people can stay as they get their feet back under them.
Authorized Camping Site: The County and City also used funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to stand up the Authorized Camping Site, which opened in early 2022 and was located on Clark Fork Lane. The ACS closed in fall 2022 due to staffing and security issues onsite. While it ultimately closed due to staffing and security issues, the ACS served as a learning experience for staff as the City and County seek solutions for an issue local government has not traditionally navigated.

Land donated for affordable housing: Missoula County donated a 5.2-acre parcel near the Missoula County Detention Facility to the City of Missoula for the Trinity Project, which was a collaboration between Homeword, the Missoula Housing Authority and BlueLine Development that was developed into a 202-home affordable housing project. This facility includes a navigation center, with staff from PHC and All Nations Health Center offering support services for those who need them onsite.

Additional information about the project is available at homeword.org/trinity and engagemissoula.com/trinity-housing.

Johnson Street Temporary Emergency Shelter: For the past several years, Missoula County has contributed funding toward standing up an emergency winter shelter for people experiencing homelessness during Montana’s long winters. In the summer of 2023, Missoula city council voted to reopen the shelter year-round to keep neighbors safe from severe weather and to increase shelter beds in Missoula for people living outdoors. The Poverello Center operates the shelter. City and County American Rescue Plan Act funds will support the program through August 2024.

Grant funding for Poverello Center’s Housing Montana Heroes Veterans Housing: In 2023, Missoula County’s grants administrators helped secure Community Development Block Grant funding for the Poverello Center to help fund the Housing Montana Heroes program, which will house veterans in non-congregate shelter at the former Clark Fork Inn.

Support for YWCA Missoula Meadowlark family housing center: Missoula County secured U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant funding from the State of Montana to partially support the cost of constructing the YWCA Missoula Meadowlark family housing center and domestic violence shelter. The family housing center on 3rd Street, which opened in 2021, supports 44 families experiencing homelessness or are survivors of domestic or sexual violence.

FUSE program manager at PHC: The FUSE program manager at Partnership Health Center works with the City of Missoula and the Coordinated Entry System. FUSE, which stands for Frequent Users of System Engagement, is a housing-first model that identifies individuals who are frequent users of crisis services (i.e. jail, shelter, etc.) and provides permanent supportive housing to these individuals. This means their housing is affordable and tenants have access to services to assist them. It significantly reduces the costly revolving door of accessing crisis services. PHC participates in the model because supportive housing is an evidence-based solution that leads to better health and quality of life for people experiencing homelessness.

Housing navigator at PHC: This position at Partnership Health Center supports the Missoula Coordinated Entry System and works alongside several community partners dedicated to ending chronic homelessness in Missoula. The housing navigator provides support to individuals who have been paired with a housing resource, such as a Permanent Supportive Housing Voucher, and who need help navigating the housing search process from start to finish. The housing navigator works to eliminate barriers and provide advocacy for the individuals they serve, ensuring housing can be secured and maintained.

Continuum of Care funding: Missoula County works with YWCA Missoula to secure annual Continuum of Care funding through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide rental assistance and supportive services to families experiencing homelessness. The YWCA is able to support up to 50 families each year with rental assistance. Missoula County is a member of the statewide Continuum of Care, which strives to support individuals and families experiencing homelessness across that state.

Housing rehabilitation: Missoula County partnered with the District XI Human Resource Council to secure HUD CDBG funding from the State of Montana to support costs for housing rehabilitation for income-eligible families in Missoula County (outside city limits). The program invests federal dollars in residential properties to preserve and improve existing housing, increase residential value and stimulate investment in Missoula County. Homeowners receive financial and technical assistance necessary to correct safety issues and substandard conditions of their homes.

Rural Special Improvement District loan program: Missoula County offers a Water and Wastewater deferred low-interest loan program to income-eligible residents of RSIDs 8901 (Lolo), 8916 (El Mar), 8918 (Lewis and Clark) and 8925 (Sunset West) to support the costs of needed repairs to water or wastewater systems.