Process begins for workforce housing master plan

The next step in finding solutions to deal with Whitefish’s shortage of available workforce housing is beginning.

The Whitefish Workforce Housing Task Force, a group made up of city and Whitefish Chamber of Commerce representatives, community members and business owners, is planning to spend nearly six months gathering information from the community as it creates a Workforce Housing Master Plan for the city.

The process is kicking off with an open house on Wednesday, June 14 at City Hall from 5-7 p.m.

Whitefish Chamber Director Kevin Gartland said the task force wants to build the plan from the ground up involving developers, residents and employers.

“We want to engage the public,” he said. “We don’t want to be spinning our wheels on this and creating something that won’t be implemented.”

The need for more workforce housing has been on the radar for years, but in the last few years became more of a priority for the city and chamber, which began looking for solutions starting with a needs assessment and now is following up with a master plan for how to address the housing shortage.

“Housing is one of those issue we can all come behind,” he said. “We’re looking to find the solution that right for Whitefish.”

Rees Consulting, a Crested Butte, Colorado-based firm, has been hired to create the housing plan. The same firm last year completed a study that showed Whitefish needs to add almost 1,000 housing units by 2020 to make up for a current shortage of available workforce housing and plan for future needs.

The goal is to create a plan to substantially increase the production of quality, affordable workforce housing over the next five to 10 years.

Melanie Rees said the plan will include specific objectives for Whitefish to develop workforce housing, the tools involved in doings so and strategies for how to implement solutions.

Rees said the development of workforce housing won’t happen without a specific plan.

“The plan is needed to create workforce housing,” she said. “Otherwise Whitefish will continue to grow and housing will become more expensive. There will be jobs left unfilled, more people will be forced to commute or be force to leave the community because they can’t afford to live there.”

Rees said the more public input involved throughout the process helps create a plan that will work in Whitefish. She said it’s not easy to provide workforce housing and the market won’t allow it to be naturally built.

“We need a plan,” she said. “It’s not going to happen without a clear direction.”

The open house on June 14 expects to introduce the public to the process involved in creating the plan and the tools that are available for addressing workforce housing. Input gathered at the meeting will be used to help develop specific objectives for the plan, including the number of units to be developed, the type and location of those units, the unit mix of ownership versus rental, income targeting and pricing.

The housing study found that a growing economy, rising home prices, scarce rental availability and few homes listed for sale at lower price points, and a shortage of housing at prices that are affordable for the workforce are all part of the issues facing Whitefish.

In turn, the trends are contributing to labor shortages by making it harder for local businesses to compete for and retain workers who are forced to live outside of Whitefish.

Gartland said finding affordable workforce housing in Whitefish has become increasingly difficult. He points to a number of trends in the community including a decrease in the percentage of owner-occupied houses in the last 10 years, the number of second homes has increased, and the number of homes being used for short-term rentals has increased.

Gartland is hopeful solutions can be found.

“There has been private fundraising for the super amenities we have in this community — this town is amazingly generous,” he said. “We don’t see this as a process driven solely by tax dollars. We’re looking for innovative ways that the business community can take this on.”

The task force has an extensive schedule that involves smaller group meetings, work sessions and open houses in July and September before a final plan is expected to be presented to Whitefish City Council in November.

Online surveys will also be conducted throughout the process. The first survey is set to run through June 15.

For more information, contact the chamber at 862-3501 or visit www.whitefishhousing.com.