Housing

Housing costs and housing availability are among the most important issues in Bozeman today. Below are my positions on how to manage both.

One of the reasons so many people come to Bozeman is the relative lack of sprawl and "stucco forests" in the city and surrounding areas. The easy, but wrong, answer to the soaring cost of housing, and lack of attainable housing, is to simply build more.

While this is, indeed, part of the answer, it must be balanced with the need to preserve the character of Bozeman and the importance of not developing agricultural land and open space simply to provide more housing. Infill of existing developed areas, such as the 7th and 19th Avenue areas, relaxing restrictions on the number of residents allowed in dwellings and incentives for higher density housing development in the center of the city are all potential answers.

Further, since Bozeman housing costs are approaching those of highly developed urban areas like Seattle, San Francisco and Portland, the need for lower cost housing requires smart approaches. We can not allow Bozeman to become a city filled with encampments of tents or recreational vehicles, as that will destroy quality of life for all. Rather, I support initiatives like Habitat for Humanity or the development of tiny houses on city owned land, where people can live comfortably, safely and with dignity, while avoiding the blight of feel-good homeless policies that have led to scenes like this, where I used to live in California.

This isn't to say that we should ignore the plight of those in need, but allowing a city to be turned into a dangerous, filthy and crime-ridden encampment helps neither those in need nor those who pay the taxes that support the city. I vividly recall living in Oakland, California, and going with a friend and his two young children to a city park downtown, only to find that it had been taken over by drug dealers and addicts. It may make some feel good to know that laws are not being enforced and quality of life is being sacrificed in the name of helping those in need, but when neither those in need nor those providing the help can live safely and comfortably, no one is helped with this kind of policy.

Indeed, a recent report shows that throwing billions of dollars at the problem of housing and homelessness without a realistic plan to remediate the core issues is simply a waste of money and resources.

California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over the past five years but didn't consistently track whether the huge outlay of public money actually improved the situation, according to state audit released Tuesday.

With makeshift tents lining the streets and disrupting businesses in cities and towns throughout California, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating and seemingly intractable issues in the country's most populous state. An estimated 171,000 people are homeless in California, which amounts to roughly 30% of all of the homeless people in the U.S.

Despite the roughly billions of dollars spent on more than 30 homeless and housing programs during the 2018-2023 fiscal years, California doesn't have reliable data needed to fully understand why the problem didn't improve in many cities, according to state auditor's report.

Throwing taxpayer money at the problem is a demonstrated way to not resolve the issues.

Of course, much of what is to be done about housing in Bozeman will be determined at the local, rather than the state, level, but I will support legislation that enables Bozeman and other Montana cities to thoughtfully and responsibly address this critical issue while also preserving agricultural land, open space and the environment.