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The City of Bozeman has been pushing for "affordable housing" since at least 2002. but despite their near total failure, members of the city commission persist in their leftist utopian dreams.
The existing plan, 42 (!) pages long, created exactly zero affordable housing units. Not to be deterred, the commission has created yet another plan.
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According to the City of Bozeman, 323 building permits were issued in the first quarter of 2018
Setting a foundation for affordable housing as a city can take a lot of cash. (That is, the journalist acknowledges that affordable housing is expensive, and someone will pay. That someone will be the typical new-home buyer as the additional cost of affordable homes gets shifted to other home buyers.)
While Bozeman leaders are weighing how to create that pot of money, they’re looking at a one-time boost in funding to propel housing efforts over the next year.
Bozeman’s affordable housing fund plugs money toward things like homebuyer education, downpayment assistance — dollars the city can later recapture — and developers fees to build. To do that, right now Bozeman collects property taxes that come to roughly $300,000 a year. (It is amazing to me what people think government ought to do. Homebuyer education? Downpayment assistance? On what basis should a city government intervene into the private financial affairs of anyone?
And by the way, who pays the developers' fees? Does the author know?)
Next year, that pool of money could reach at least $725,000, according the proposed budget that lays out city spending from June of this year through July 2019.
City Manager Andrea Surratt said the additional dollars come from a lawsuit settlement that landed in Bozeman’s general fund. She said the one-time aid is a “modest amount” toward affordable housing.
“But this year, we wanted to at least put the seed money in to grow the program,” Surratt said as she talked through the plan with commissioners Monday.
The city is revamping its role in keeping housing within reach. (That is, the city is trying yet again to get it right after numerous failures.)
A big piece of that conversation has been a need to define funding to aid affordable housing and how to stretch that across Bozeman.
Commissioners approved a timeline this month to up that effort over the next year. The vote gave city staff the OK to start a needs assessment that will eventually shape a housing action plan.
Nearly a year ago, Bozeman created its affordable housing mandate that says developers bringing in at least 10 new homes for sale — detached or townhomes — have to include a portion that are priced within reach of the area’s median income. (That is, some of the developers' homes will be underpriced, which necessitates the need to shift costs to "non-affordable" homes. The end user always pays the cost of government.)
So far, eight homes arrived in that range, (Hmm. 323 building permits issued, but only eight homes? 2.5% can only be regarded as an abject failure.)
all within The Lakes at Valley West subdivision. (According to the link, $225,793 is considered "affordable." Supposedly, a family of four earning $56,800 could buy such a home. That payment is $1589/mo with pmi. Assuming a takehome pay of $3550/mo, that's nearly 45% of this family's income for housing. If you're wondering how this is affordable, welcome to the club.)
Affordable Housing Manager Matt Madsen called that a success. (If so, he's living in an alternate universe.)
He said as of last week, the keys to three of those homes landed with new homeowners while another four were under contract.
In the May 14 meeting, Madsen told commissioners that developers are working to add homes to that list. He said along the way, Bozeman needs to check whether its incentives to build affordable homes are working. (Why bother? If those incentives are not working, the commission will simply introduce a new plan.)
He said the city also needs to look for what’s missing in its current program, which revolves around homeownership and leaves out chunks like rentals. ("What's missing" is an understanding of economics and how prices of products and services are determined. It's called "supply and demand," which is the critical component excluded by the affordable housing legislation.)
“When we talk about the housing continuum as we continue to grow the program from what it is into where we want to take it, how do we address all the different areas of housing,” he said. (The commission should have no power at all to take it "where we want to take it." The whole idea is offensive.)
The city’s last housing needs assessment wrapped up in 2012. It set Bozeman on a path that led to its rules for developers to introduce some homes with prices typical wage earners can swing. Officials hope the updated assessment is done by the end of this year to start shaping a new housing action plan in 2019 to guide Bozeman over four years.
Other things on the affordable housing agenda include updating the city’s citizen affordable housing board and pulling more people into the conversation around how Bozeman can help connect residents to housing that doesn’t wipe out paychecks. (I doubt a single one of these additional people will be free-market advocates.)
During the May 14 meeting, Mayor Cyndy Andrus said many places struggle with housing issues. She said she thinks the city is on track to make a difference in Bozeman.
“We have left quite a few people behind. (Who is "we?" It can only mean government. And how would this continual failure recommend these same strategies over and over?)
But I am hopeful as we move forward that number will change as we address and think about the other needs in our community that perhaps we didn’t address in our first plan,” Andrus said. (The mayor tacitly admits the failures of past efforts. I doubt, however, she will learn anything from the experience.)
Setting a foundation for affordable housing as a city can take a lot of cash. (That is, the journalist acknowledges that affordable housing is expensive, and someone will pay. That someone will be the typical new-home buyer as the additional cost of affordable homes gets shifted to other home buyers.)
While Bozeman leaders are weighing how to create that pot of money, they’re looking at a one-time boost in funding to propel housing efforts over the next year.
Bozeman’s affordable housing fund plugs money toward things like homebuyer education, downpayment assistance — dollars the city can later recapture — and developers fees to build. To do that, right now Bozeman collects property taxes that come to roughly $300,000 a year. (It is amazing to me what people think government ought to do. Homebuyer education? Downpayment assistance? On what basis should a city government intervene into the private financial affairs of anyone?
And by the way, who pays the developers' fees? Does the author know?)
Next year, that pool of money could reach at least $725,000, according the proposed budget that lays out city spending from June of this year through July 2019.
City Manager Andrea Surratt said the additional dollars come from a lawsuit settlement that landed in Bozeman’s general fund. She said the one-time aid is a “modest amount” toward affordable housing.
“But this year, we wanted to at least put the seed money in to grow the program,” Surratt said as she talked through the plan with commissioners Monday.
The city is revamping its role in keeping housing within reach. (That is, the city is trying yet again to get it right after numerous failures.)
A big piece of that conversation has been a need to define funding to aid affordable housing and how to stretch that across Bozeman.
Commissioners approved a timeline this month to up that effort over the next year. The vote gave city staff the OK to start a needs assessment that will eventually shape a housing action plan.
Nearly a year ago, Bozeman created its affordable housing mandate that says developers bringing in at least 10 new homes for sale — detached or townhomes — have to include a portion that are priced within reach of the area’s median income. (That is, some of the developers' homes will be underpriced, which necessitates the need to shift costs to "non-affordable" homes. The end user always pays the cost of government.)
So far, eight homes arrived in that range, (Hmm. 323 building permits issued, but only eight homes? 2.5% can only be regarded as an abject failure.)
all within The Lakes at Valley West subdivision. (According to the link, $225,793 is considered "affordable." Supposedly, a family of four earning $56,800 could buy such a home. That payment is $1589/mo with pmi. Assuming a takehome pay of $3550/mo, that's nearly 45% of this family's income for housing. If you're wondering how this is affordable, welcome to the club.)
Affordable Housing Manager Matt Madsen called that a success. (If so, he's living in an alternate universe.)
He said as of last week, the keys to three of those homes landed with new homeowners while another four were under contract.
In the May 14 meeting, Madsen told commissioners that developers are working to add homes to that list. He said along the way, Bozeman needs to check whether its incentives to build affordable homes are working. (Why bother? If those incentives are not working, the commission will simply introduce a new plan.)
He said the city also needs to look for what’s missing in its current program, which revolves around homeownership and leaves out chunks like rentals. ("What's missing" is an understanding of economics and how prices of products and services are determined. It's called "supply and demand," which is the critical component excluded by the affordable housing legislation.)
“When we talk about the housing continuum as we continue to grow the program from what it is into where we want to take it, how do we address all the different areas of housing,” he said. (The commission should have no power at all to take it "where we want to take it." The whole idea is offensive.)
The city’s last housing needs assessment wrapped up in 2012. It set Bozeman on a path that led to its rules for developers to introduce some homes with prices typical wage earners can swing. Officials hope the updated assessment is done by the end of this year to start shaping a new housing action plan in 2019 to guide Bozeman over four years.
Other things on the affordable housing agenda include updating the city’s citizen affordable housing board and pulling more people into the conversation around how Bozeman can help connect residents to housing that doesn’t wipe out paychecks. (I doubt a single one of these additional people will be free-market advocates.)
During the May 14 meeting, Mayor Cyndy Andrus said many places struggle with housing issues. She said she thinks the city is on track to make a difference in Bozeman.
“We have left quite a few people behind. (Who is "we?" It can only mean government. And how would this continual failure recommend these same strategies over and over?)
But I am hopeful as we move forward that number will change as we address and think about the other needs in our community that perhaps we didn’t address in our first plan,” Andrus said. (The mayor tacitly admits the failures of past efforts. I doubt, however, she will learn anything from the experience.)
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