By David O’Connor GUEST COLUMNIST
Big Sky, like most Montana communities, has been experiencing a housing crisis for many years. As property values skyrocket and available rentals dwindle, the Big Sky Community Housing Trust has been working to address the problem since its inception in 2019.
As far back as 2011, the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce had identified a community housing trust as a powerful tool for communities to ensure there’s always a place for residents across the whole income spectrum. Problem was, we had no idea how to create such an organization, what it could do, and where to get started. Then we called HRDC.
HRDC came to Big Sky and worked with the community to identify an opportunity for a first project, worked with our locally-elected Resort Tax board to secure funding for the land, commenced construction, and while they were at it, laid the groundwork for the formation of the Big Sky Community Housing Trust. HRDC hired the first executive director for the Trust, and provided training and guidance for the first few years until we were ready to stand on our own.
In the meantime, HRDC executed the Meadowview Condo project in partnership with the new Housing Trust. These 52 homes were completed in 2020, are reserved for working locals, and the community land trust structure ensures they will remain affordable forever. By the time Meadowview was complete, the Housing Trust was fully formed with its own board of directors and staff, and we’ve been hard at work ever since.
Today, what HRDC started has resulted in the housing trust building 52 homes reserved for local ownership and 25 apartments for our lowest income residents, permanently securing 18 existing homes for local ownership, and securing over 140 homes for long-term lease to over 350 locals. We are now preparing to embark on the Cold Smoke project, which will bring almost 400 new deed restricted apartments and single-family homes reserved for locals, and affordable to local paychecks.
None of this work would have been possible without HRDC. They didn’t just plant a seed, they planted a forest.
HRDC’s patient leadership and expertise has been a game-changer for our community. The housing crisis is extremely complex, expensive and difficult to solve. HRDC’s willingness to come to our community and help us learn to help ourselves will have lasting impacts for many decades to come.
David O’Connor is the Executive Director of the Big Sky Community Housing Trust.
