Pilot Editorial: Study will provide clarity on housing needs

The urgency for some sort of meaningful action in addressing Whitefish’s affordable housing shortage couldn’t have been more obvious than it was at City Council’s first meeting of 2016.

One by one, a long line of respected Whitefish business-owners and representatives described to council how the issue is nearing a crisis and impacting their bottom line. From the service industry to health care, a local labor shortage has become a very real byproduct of climbing housing costs coupled with a dwindling stock of affordable rental units.

Qualified workers who want to live and work in Whitefish are passing on job opportunities because the cost of living here simply doesn’t pencil out. Jobs go unfilled and businesses struggle to meet the demands of their customers in this booming tourism-driven economy.

Council heard these pleas and responded by agreeing to fund a housing needs assessment and plan. Up to $60,000 will go to the study that could take up to a year to complete. It’s been about eight years since Whitefish last studied its affordable housing needs.

Funding this new study is money well spent. Having an updated assessment on hand will help pinpoint where current gaps in housing exist and potential remedies to consider.

Are we talking about affordable, workforce or seasonal housing, or all of the above? Should the city be more proactive in mandating that developers build affordable units? How many units are sustainable? A better understanding of and more clarity on these questions is needed to bring on positive outcomes.

Good on council for kickstarting this assessment and kudos to the Whitefish Chamber for carrying the torch in getting the work done, because doing nothing is no longer an option.

Ultimately, study or not, solving our housing crisis is going to take buy-in from the entire community and our city decision-makers.

As councilor and former mayor Andy Feury fervidly noted, “This is an issue we’ve looked at for 20 years and one that we’ve failed at for 20 years.”

Let’s hope this study is the first step in finally getting it right.