Content area
Full text
A Shortage of Homes and Stagnant Incomes Widen the Divide
The lack of affordable housing has been an increasingly difficult problem for many Montana communities. With relatively few affordable homes available for households earning a low income, and with much of the existing affordable inventory aging and in need of rehabilitation, many households earning a low income are being priced out of housing markets.
When households become highly cost burdened they experience many difficulties in regard to health and well-being outcomes, such as educational attainment of minors, employment opportunities, etc. Those households priced completely out of the market experience the unending difficulties associated with homelessness. And it is not merely the cost-burdened household members who suffer, the difficulties of being cost-burdened or homeless extend from the individuals directly involved to the communities where they Uve. This imposes costs on community hospitals, schools, criminal justice efforts, infrastructure upkeep and many other community institutions. Reducing these costs will be an increasingly pressing problem moving forward.
Figure 1 shows the extent of cost burden among renters and homeowners in various counties in Montana, and compares that to national and statewide averages.
Demand for affordable housing in Montana far outstrips supply. For example, statewide there are only 39 affordable housing units for every 100 households earning an extremely low income (below 30% of area median income). Since 2016, there have been over 30,000 applications for housing choice vouchers, with only about 4,000 issued. This indicates a demand-supply ratio of more than 7-to-1 for this program alone.