by Travis Mateer
Before we get to the NO on an affordable housing project in Bozeman, let’s take a quick look at how the New York Times depicted Bozeman 18 years ago:
No longer a cow town, Bozeman — in Big Sky Country, Montana — has been nicknamed Boz Angeles because of an influx of Californians and celebrities. This has resulted in ranchers cashing out and Wal-Mart moving in, although downtown Bozeman still has plenty of charm, along with mountain views. And while it has been known to snow in August, on most weekends you’ll find the whole town — and its many dogs — floating down the Madison and Yellowstone Rivers on inner tubes.
With this framing in mind, the next article I’ll quote from is co-written by former Bozeman Mayor, Jeff Krauss, an outspoken Mayor who I used to interact with on Twitter back when I posted under the pseudonym “lizard” at 4&20 Blackbirds. For a trip down memory lane, this post from 2014 is about buffer zones for anti-abortion “street counselors” and how a Supreme Court decision could impact panhandlers.
The article I’m quoting from for this post counters the claim that the housing crisis in places like Bozeman will be solved by increasing density, which I call the SARDINE CAN plan. From the link:
We would like to pose a question to the Bozeman City Commission. Imagine we could wave a magic wand and dramatically increase Bozeman’s housing supply overnight. Let’s say we could wake up tomorrow to 1,000 new units of all kinds of housing. Do you think the average housing price would decrease?
Our hunch is that most, if not all of you, believe the answer is yes. Your actions are those of people who believe unaffordability in housing is caused mostly by low supply in the market, and that we can build our way to affordability. But we suggest that is a false premise. We don’t have a supply problem in our market; instead, we have a market that caters to Wall Street instead of answering the needs of working Bozemanites.
Is Jeff taking on Wall Street? Yes, it would appear so, and I attribute this to Jeff Krauss’ ability to deal with reality, which he breaks down in the following paragraph with his informed speculation on what would happen to those new units if a thousand hit the market tomorrow.
If we woke up tomorrow to 1,000 brand-new housing units, they would be snatched up by same people who are snatching them up today: 20 percent would go to wealthy people from Bozeman who can afford to move up or invest; fifty percent would go to wealthy newcomers; and the remaining thirty percent would go to out-of-state investors.
Jeff Krauss isn’t the only one looking at reality and saying NO to the claims of local officials that poor developers just need LESS red tape in order for them to magically fix the housing crisis. The public commenters who kept Bozeman officials up late on Tuesday night included comments like this one (emphasis mine):
“This whole system is corrupt. The way the city works in the interest of the developer is corrupt, and it needs to change,” said Bozeman resident Stuart Mitchell. “Maybe you should recognize why the public is so upset, and standing here repeatedly, and being very emotional, because they’re not heard, and they don’t trust you.”
Back here in Missoula, when a petulant, punk-ass developer by the name of Max Wolf held a historic building hostage in order to build townhomes, the historic preservation society DID listen to concerns about how Fort Missoula would be negatively impacted, but in the end none of it mattered because Max Wolf shot the hostage in the head anyway, while Side-Rail Bob (who doesn’t like subsidized farms), blamed the victims and not the cultural terrorist.
Going back to the Bozeman article, here’s a more detailed description of why this particular housing project got nixed Tuesday night:
Developers proposed 111 units, 9 of which would have two bedrooms, with the remaining 102 being one-bedroom units. 56 of the total units were to be priced affordably for those making 80% of area median income, with one-bedroom units permitted to be priced with an occupancy of two people in mind.
But commissioners pointed out that the one-bedroom units were similar to studios in size, layout and lack of a true kitchen, leading to a discrepancy in the calculation of affordable rent.
“I do think that a reasonable person would look at both the one bedroom and the one bedroom plus arrangements and discern that that is a studio apartment,” said Commissioner Bode.
Other rationale put forth by commissioners for denial of the application included questions of whether the affordable units were equitable in terms of views and location within the building, questions of ADA compliance in regard to the cramped site plan, and concerns about traffic congestion and safety impacts on the midtown neighborhood.
Are officials in Missoula paying attention to this? I bet they are, and they should be, because locals here are also getting very tired of the corrupt self-dealing that’s rampant, obvious, and ultimately self-destructive to the supposed goals of HELPING those who struggle to afford a roof over their head.
If you appreciate a local journalist who refuses to let massive political retaliation stop him from truth-telling, then consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). I’ve hit more than a few nerves with our corrupt officials and non-profit influencers, I’m over their entire nerve-center dropping truth bombs and the response has been nasty, vindictive, and very predictable.
Thanks for reading!
