Speakers say adding to stock necessary for addressing housing shortage

Constructing more housing is a major part of the solution in addressing the lack of affordable workforce housing in Flathead Valley.

That was the message shared by several panelists at an affordable housing forum recently in Whitefish.

“We need projects that include a mix of apartments, townhomes, condos,” said Kim Morisaki, executive director of the Northwest Montana Community Land Trust. “We need apartments for the young teacher, the new police officer and the new mechanic who is learning. We need all types of housing.”

Morisaki said her organization has a waiting list for those looking to purchase homes, but it’s also critical to provide other types of housing.

“The solution to not having friends have their rental sold out from under them is to build more homes,” she said. “We need to be more efficient with a little more high density.”

Kalispell City Councilor Ryan Hunter said providing housing means a new perspective that neighborhoods can change and a shift in zoning for where new homes can be built is critical to addressing a shortage of housing.

“Nimbyism is one of the biggest barriers to affordable housing,” he said.

Both Morisaki and Hunter were panelists at the forum that included other folks also working to address issues regarding affordable workforce housing in the valley. The event was hosted by the Flathead Democratic Party and co-sponsored by the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors, the Kalispell Education Association and NeighborWorks Montana.

Hunter, who works for the Flathead Land Trust, says constructing higher density housing can serve two purposes to conserve open space by eliminating sprawl, but also providing housing at a lower cost.

“Anything that’s pushing the price point down we need to do,” he said. “We need to increase the supply so that helps the demand.”

Offering the perspective of a business owner, Ed Docter, has been advocating for creating housing for the local workforce.

Docter, the owner of the Montana Tap House and Tamarack Ski Shop, said he didn’t think he’d have any problems finding staff this summer, but then in August, he was forced to close for his regular lunch service because he was short-staffed.

“Every one of us knows someone who has left Whitefish,” Docter said. “It’s a crisis.”

Docter is working with a group of local business owners and concerned citizens forming the Whitefish Workforce Housing Project to form a nonprofit cooperative aimed at developing workforce housing. In the meantime, he’s personally renting units to provide subsidized housing for his own employees.

“Workforce housing is what we need to house employees,” he said. “If nobody can rent or buy a house then what are we going to do. Business owners can subsidize the rent to help out their employees.”

Docter said he supports projects that will bring higher density housing meaning affordable units.

“We need density and we need apartments or businesses are going to be open very limited hours,” he said.

Ben Johnson, a board member for the Whitefish Housing Authority noted that the median sale price of a home in Whitefish in 2015 was $312,000 and that number skyrocketed to $619,000 in 2021, while the area median income for a single individual has gone mostly unchanged at about $50,000.

“Affordable housing is where someone can live where they have the opportunity to save money and give back to the community,” he said. “Adding housing will slow down the creep of affordability.”

A Whitefish housing needs assessment in 2016 showed that almost 1,000 housing units were needed to make up for a shortage of available workforce housing. That study found that about 600 units needed to be more affordable, but also market-rate homes were needed.

Inspired by that study and other projects elsewhere, Jerry Dunker, the managing partner for the Trailview subdivision, began working on an affordable housing project and now knows firsthand what it takes to construct affordable housing. He and his business partner are about halfway through constructing 58 single-family, deed-restricted homes in a subdivision on the east side of town.

“We’re a unique project, we have other jobs so we’re not relying on this development for our income,” he said. “Our return on investment is that we want to provide something for the community. We don’t have investors we have to make happy.”

Dunker seemed to agree with his fellow panelists that several types of housing are needed to fill the gap.

“We need attainable housing,” Dunker said. “We need rentals at $700 a month, but we also need houses that people can purchase that are below the market. We’re selling our houses at about 60 percent of their appraised value.”