Trust Montana is focused on providing low-income and workforce housing in places where the cost of real estate far outstrips what a person earning the average median income can hope to pay. By providing homeownership opportunity to people who are otherwise locked out of the market due to ever-increasing property prices, Trust Montana can help solve the housing crisis in Montana.
Over the past two years, Trust Montana has seen a drastic increase of interest in, and need for, the housing affordability services the CLT provides. Farmers at the Montana Summit on Agricultural Finance in the Winter of 2019 pinpointed the lack of affordable land that is not priced at a development value as one of the main obstacles to business growth.
The Montana Budget and Policy Center’s Rental Housing Affordability Map provides some insight into the problems facing working Montanans.
Of particular interest, from the Affordability Map, is the following data that illustrates the number of hours a minimum wage earner must work in order to afford a rental home (counties listed are current TM focus areas).
- Missoula County: 81 hours
- Gallatin County: 80 hours
- Carbon County: 81 hours
- Lewis and Clark County: 72 hours
