Bryan von Lossberg asked the Council sponsors of the referral, Julie and Heidi, if they would like to make introductory comments.
Julie Merritt said she is glad to be hearing a presentation on this topic. She understands Invest Health has done some studies about the displacement risk ratio in our community and it's an important topic for Council to hear in order to address it.
Heid West added it's a pivotal time, for example implementing the housing trust fund. Thinks this infomration will help them make decisions that are more effective.
Bryan von Lossberg Introduced Kaia and Laval, invited them to present.
Kaia Peterson, Executive Director, NeighborWorks MT, member of Invest Health Team. The Invest Health team is focused on understanding underlying data in community in regards to resident health, specifically the social determinants of health, housing is one critical determinant. Explained that the Displacement Risk Ratio (DRR) is one way of analyzing housing and the Missoula data is startling. They will share the data and context and how it connects to current and future policy. Highlighted the partners in this project.
Laval Means, Community Planning Division, with Community Planning, Development and Innovation, also a member of the Invest Health Team. Provided summary information of the Displacement Risk Ratio analysis. The full presentation is available on the City website: search for "Missoula Invest Health". The presentation today highlights what the rising home prices in Missoula means to people. Described their approach, reasons behind their approach and the DRR. Discussed the data from the Missoula DRR study and how it affects different groups and issues. Discussed the results of the study show that the entire city of Missoula is facing considerable displacement pressure associated with rapidly appreciating home sales prices.
Kaia Peterson discussed lessons learned from the study. They hoped they'd find specific targeted places to focus their limited resources on to leverage impact, but the entire community is broadly impacted. The factors that come into play in our community are complex, so we should dig in to learn how to best respond.
Natalie Stockman told her story of how difficult finding rental housing is in Missoula, expressing how sad and disappointing the housing market here has become.
Ethan Sky Segal is representing a small business owner and told his story of having to move because the home he and his family rented was sold.
Tina told her story of having to move out of Missoula, after living here for 45 years, to find affordable housing.
Karissa Trujillo, Missoula Home Coalition said, these stories are not unique. They know there is immense need. Discussed policy and action items for the housing issue in Missoula and what they think is most critical in addressing this issue.
Bryan von Lossberg thanked everyone. Invited Council members to discuss.
Julie Merritt thanked everyone for sharing their stories. Stated the City Council hear constantly about the difficulties the current housing markets creates. She asked why the DRR study used the year 2000 as the median base income.
Kaia Peterson said the researches that did the study included this information in the full presentation, so they can refer back to that. It is partly because they need a long period of time to identify variations and the issues around access to data.
Gwen Jones thanked everyone for the information and stories. Agreed that Council is constantly paying attention to these issues. She discussed the importance of outreach to Legislators for the upcoming legislative session because there are intertwined issues between local and state government on these issues.
Bryan von Lossberg asked if they have plans to connect with legislators about this data.
Kaia Peterson said there isn’t a specific forum for this data, but there are other avenues where state level policy is being discussed.
Bryan von Lossberg emphasized that State legislators do not hear these stories enough. Asked if there is similar data available from other major metropolitan areas of the state.
Kaia Peterson said this particular analysis has not been done in any other city in the state that she knows of, but there are similar studies.
Heidi West asked what the different is between wage data and median income. Are we using 2020 wage data or is it income?
Kaia Peterson said it’s median income data.
Montana James said the only wage data that the Investment Fund used in this analysis was a data set pulled from the Department of Labor to gauge where Missoula’s wages are.
Heidi West asked if there is any information about displacement being linked to building permits, zoning, tracking when redevelopment is impacting residents.
Laval Means said the information is inside Oscela, the permit tracking systems and they are working on getting specific numbers.
Heidi West asked if the local government can intervene in private transactions.
Bryan von Lossberg said in the interest of time they need to move on and that there will be a list of things that come out of this to follow up on.
Heather Harp said validated everything that’s been said before by her colleagues. Mentioned that there will be an eviction tsunami at the end of the year when the moratorium ends with serious ramifications. Asked if they have plans to address relocation assistance and inclusionary zoning?
Montana James said they are working on getting the Citizen Oversight Committee seated first, and getting the scaffolding pieces of the Trust Fund operational, because all of the programming pieces come from the Trust Fund and require financial resources to operate.
Heather Harp asked if they’ll listen to other ideas like zoning changes, that would allow additional ways to solving the affordability issue.
Montana James said yes, the Housing Policy lists several land use changes. Thinks their collaborations adds momentum to the regulatory changes recommended in the policy.
Heather Harp thanks, she'll be in touch
Bryan von Lossberg we'll go to 315. Next up Mirtha
Mirtha Becerra thanked everyone for sharing your stories. Said this is a real issue that moved a lot of them to run for and be on City Council. Asked if there is a breakdown of their data that shows who is more at risk of being displaced so they can support development that addresses that portion of the population.
Kaia Peterson said the full presentation has some overlay of those specific groups.
Laval Means said it also shows the relational aspects to our places.
Amber Sherrill thanked everyone for coming today. Said the entire Council is aware of the rising home prices and wages not keeping up with this, it’s powerful to hear this data. She wonders if there is data and coalitions like this in other communities.
Bryan von Lossberg mentioned the State wide tax policies that encourage this kind of property speculation that contributes to the crisis here.
Sam Duncan said the Home Coalition is doing the best they can and does have people making an effort at the State level, and Common Good is growing every day to make an effort at the state level. Asked the Council to work with them on the State things, but also consider what is in their power to do. Invited Montana to join them at their meetings with an inclusionary zoning experts in hopes they will come to Missoula to advise on inclusionary zoning here, and provide other recommendations.
Bryan von Lossberg invited public comment.
Josh Decker Ward 1, member of Common Good Missoula Housing Action team. He is saddened by the immediate knee jerk reaction to pass the buck to the state level. It’s a combination and they need to take action at the local level with the recommendations they’ve been given today.
Leticia Romero Ward 4 said this has been a really intense hour. She believes Council is passing the responsibility to others instead of just saying "yes, we will work on this asap".
Benny Locayo Ward 3, member of Common Good Missoula. He agrees with everything that was just said by the other folks. He wants to add that it's important for City Council to project "power with" not "power over". There are people in crisis in our city right now and Council was elected to be the voice of the people, they have heard the voices and now they need to be that voice.
Bryan von Lossberg said he wasn't trying to pass the buck when mentioning working with others across the State. Thanked everyone for sharing their stories, mentioned there is a lot of work to do and adjourned the meeting at 3:16 p.m.