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.
Cheryl Cohen, Montana Housing Division Administrator at the Montana Department of Commerce says, “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 Department of Housing and Urban Development for their assessment in resetting Montana’s fair market rents. From our perspective, we believe their methodology particularly for rural and frontier areas is not adequately representing what our rents really are.”
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Earlier this year due to a change in state funding allocations the Section 8 vouchers wait list closed.
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 percent 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.
Cohen defines that "It is to set what our voucher payment standards are. Right now we have set them at the maximum at 120 percent of fair market rent, but for Lewis and Clark County these rents can range for the voucher payment standard around 1000 to 1200 dollars.”
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.
