HELENA — The Montana Department of Commerce launched a survey to better understand the need for affordable housing in Montana.
The survey aims to gather information on how inflation, the limited supply of rental housing, increased demand, high cost of labor, and increases in property insurance rates have driven up the cost of housing throughout the state.
“The goal with the survey is to gather more real-time market rent data throughout the state of Montana to submit an exception request to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for their assessment in resetting Montana’s fair market rents," Montana Department of Commerce Montana Housing Division Administrator Cheryl Cohen. " From our perspective, we believe their methodology particularly for rural and frontier areas is not adequately representing what our rents really are.”
Earlier this year due to a change in state funding allocations the Section 8 vouchers waitlist closed.
The Montana Department of Commerce will use survey results to find more appropriate rental subsidies for lower-income households, specifically the elderly and disabled.
“We look at the households who are waiting for a federal assistance voucher and about 57% are households where at least one family member has a disability, so we are talking about families who are on fixed incomes or may have challenges going and working," Cohen says.
The survey results could potentially adjust the maximum rent amount that can be paid to landlords on behalf of households served in federal rental assistance programs and better define fair market rent.
"It is to set what our voucher payment standards are," Cohen says. "Right now we have set them at the maximum at 120% of fair market rent, but for Lewis and Clark County these rents can range for the voucher payment standard around $1,000 to $1,200.”
Montana renters will receive a letter in the mail this week that will have survey instructions and a code to get started.
Responses are voluntary and confidential.
