BOZEMAN - The high cost of living in Bozeman and low housing availability has driven many people in town to live in campers on the streets.
The City of Bozeman has been looking for solutions to fix the housing crisis; one option that they've had is to build more affordable housing units.
“Bozeman needs all housing types for all households,” says the City of Bozeman economic development manager David Fine.
According to Zillow, the average price of rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Bozeman is $2,200 per month, but the city hopes to bring more affordable housing online.
“A five-story new construction project. It's 155 units that is really geared towards working families,” says Paul Keenan, vice president of development for Rueter Walton.
This project is slated to be built behind Kenyon Noble on 14th Avenue and Patrick Street.
The project will offer rents within 60% of the average median income threshold, meaning rents for a one-bedroom could hover around $1,400 when they open up.
“We’ve committed to 50 years of affordability for this project. And so that means there will be rent caps,” says Keenan.
The Arrowleaf apartments project is a development that brought 96 units of affordable housing online last year.
Fine says the city has just under 550 affordable housing units proposed across the city, but even with that there is still catching up to do.
“We know we're behind in terms of overall housing inventory,” he says.
Fine says after the City Commission doubled the city's budget to $2.5 million to help fund affordable housing projects, it could give developers more incentive to build affordable housing.
“In this case, you know, it's really hard to make low-income housing tax credit projects pencil without some other sources of incentives,” says Fine.
Construction on this project should start up in the next couple of months with people moving in sometime in early 2026.
