A draft Housing Needs Assessment has been developed and will be reviewed by Bozeman’s Affordable Housing Working Group today, February 12th at 3 PM at the Bozeman Public Library (Community Room.) The group is made up of stakeholders from all aspects of Bozeman life –realtors, business owners, bankers, lenders, non-profits, government agencies—and has been tasked with providing ideas and guidance as the City of Bozeman works toward creating a comprehensive, community-wide Affordable Housing Action Plan.

 
The draft Housing Needs Assessment is a 112 page document brimming with data that paints the picture of housing in Bozeman and surrounding communities. The numbers are compiled from a variety of sources including Census data, realtor data, focus groups sessions and a survey of nearly 500 employers (representing 30% of all jobs) in Bozeman.

 
The goal of a housing needs assessment is to show the magnitude and scope of the housing challenges in an area. The draft report shines a spotlight on the societal and economic impacts of the problem in Bozeman. The resulting version of the needs assessment approved by the Working Group will be comprehensive and will set the stage for a data-driven discussion about solutions. The assessment brings reliable data to the conversation, giving community leaders a common starting point to begin the action-planning process.

 
City Commissioner Terry Cunningham – the liaison to the working group - is confident in the scope and talent of the Working Group that has been tasked with creating Bozeman’s action plan.
 
He says, “Bozeman is poised to take bold action, and that action will be informed by the working group. We are very confident that smart people looking at the same data can develop a Bozeman-specific set of tools to address this pervasive, all-encompassing issue.”
 
The draft Housing Needs Assessment can be viewed here. Comments on the draft can be made to agenda@bozeman.net or by any other methods for public comment found here.