housing

The state's shift in property taxes away from corporations to homeowners is reaching a breaking point as households struggle, Missoula city officials said.

A pilot program that looks to boost the construction of workforce housing and direct revenue into the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund was approved by the Missoula Redevelopment Agency's board of commissioners on Thursday.

Missoula County this week approved a $900,000 contribution to help fund the operation and management of the Johnson Street shelter through next October, when the money runs out.

A proposal to place rotating homeless camps in each of Missoula's six voting wards was tabled in committee on Wednesday, even after an amendment that removed parks and rights-of-way as potential locations.

A privately funded workforce housing project plans to break ground in the Old Sawmill District this fall, offering 19 loft studio and one-bedroom apartments.

The Missoula Fire Department extinguished a structure fire in a shuttered house frequented by the homeless on Saturday afternoon just before 1 p.m.

Opening several authorized camp sites for the homeless in city parks and vacant lots in each of Missoula's six voting wards would provide some homeless residents a “place to exist,” one City Council member argued on Wednesday.

A new tool in state law that defines workforce housing as infrastructure has city leaders eager to implement a pilot program that will direct tax increment toward “bricks and mortar” projects while helping grow the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

The renovation of Knowles Hall cost $18 million, and was paid for through the issuance of debt bonds. No taxpayer dollars or student tuition dollars were used for the renovation.

After a second week of debate and accusations of a poorly planned process, the Missoula City Council on Wednesday voted 6-3 to approve the operational contract to run the Johnson Street shelter for a full year.

A subdivision planned on 16 acres off Mary Jane Boulevard was approved by the Missoula City Council on Monday night, and it marks the first time a development has moved through the state's new expedited review process.

The agreement passes funding from the Community Development Block Grant program to the shelter to aid in the deconstruction of the Clark Fork Inn and building a new facility.