Montana Economic Development

Affordable housing has become nonexistent in Bigfork because the community’s well-off residents don’t want it here, a local advocate charges.

Larry Swanson, director of the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana, said there has been a lot of talk about growth in a few energy-rich counties in Eastern Montana, but the real story is the continued growth of the "urban counties."

"We had an excellent and diverse group of applicants, including projects
using new technology and the expansion of existing businesses through
marketing and equipment upgrades," said Nancy K. Peterson, director of
the Montana Department of Agriculture.

The stakes were high for the Missoula housing agency, which already invested at least $3 million toward creating a mixed-use development on Russell Street. The development needed $4.7 million in tax-credit equity to help provide 36 units of affordable rentals on a small portion of the land.

Reinstating that defunct route is a topic for discussion at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Governor’s Reception Room at the state Capitol in Helena.

High gas prices and frustrations with airlines are sending people to the train.

Through the innovative efforts of the tech team at Modwest http://www.modwest.com, the Montana Associated Technology Roundtables is now able to provide more ways for the success of Montana to be publicized globally.

“Missoula alone cannot solve Montana’s affordable housing crisis,” and says the MHA is hard at work building new housing here, but unless other Montana communities succeed at it too, their residents may end up on Missoula’s waiting list. He says the 450 units MHA has added over the last five years constitute “more than any housing authority in the state, and more than every housing authority in the state combined.”

“What we’ve done is bring those services under one tent,” Gorman said. “We bring the system to them, rather than have them wander around in the system.”

Ferdinand said the Department of Commerce notified him the $3 million project, which would create 44 rental units near the Fountain Terrace Condos, is ranked at number one among the Montana projects seeking such financing.