Like many states across the country, Montana is facing a housing crisis. One organization says policies in the Build Back Better Act, still in Congress, could help more people find and afford homes.

Opponents of the bill say it's too costly. But Adrienne Bombelles, senior policy analyst with the Montana Budget and Policy Center, said it includes much-needed rental assistance, through the Housing Choice Voucher program.

Under the Build Back Better plan, she said, the program could receive an additional $26 billion.

"The Housing Choice Voucher program and its expansion is going to go a long way towards helping families living in poverty," said Bombelles, "or senior citizens living on low fixed incomes and those living with disabilities afford their rent."

More than 10,500 Montanans rely on the program for rental assistance.

Thirty-six percent are people living with disabilities, 32% are older Montanans and 26% are single parents. But the average waitlist for the Housing Choice Voucher program in Montana is 25 months.

Bombelles noted that housing affordability isn't the only concern. Because the state is mostly rural, housing supply also is an issue.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Montana needs about 17,700 more homes that are affordable and available for renters with extremely low incomes.

Bombelles said housing advocates in the state see a few ways to increase the supply, such as increasing the state's investment.

"Also better leverage the federal dollars that are coming to the state, especially in the form the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program," said Bombelles. "To boost our supply, to subsidize the construction and maintenance of homes that are affordable to people living on low incomes."

The Build Back Better Act would provide $250 million to small, rural towns specifically for building more affordable housing.

While the task is great and the pandemic has made it greater, Bombelles said it's still possible to tackle.

"This problem is not insurmountable," said Bombelles. "We have solutions, and our nation is wealthy. We have the resources to create these investments for our people. It's just finding the path forward and finding the will to do these things."

Although Sen. Joe Manchin - D-W.Va. - has said he will vote no on the package, Democrats have vowed to move forward with a vote in 2022.

Some Illinois real estate corporations are getting large paydays by charging homeowners assessments for "common expenses," and the owners allege they are taking advantage of the Illinois Condominium Property Act.

Owners in a building along Chicago's Lakefront say they are being pushed out of their homes and cannot afford the new building owner's fees, which they say are unreasonable.

Teyona James Harris, a member of Condo Owners of Woodland Park and 13-year homeowner demanded assistance at City Hall to fight what she calls "unjust displacement."

"So, they have things like landscaping, where they spent like 100-and-something-thousand dollars on," Harris pointed out. "In the past two budgets where we've had special assessments, there were the same items in both budgets that never got taken care of. They're trying to push us out because they want our properties."

The condo owners have joined forces with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization and are proposing changes to the state's Condominium Property Act to force greater transparency and accountability by condo associations, provide more protections and create a more fair and equitable system for condo owners in Illinois.

The Condominium Property Act is meant to protect current owners from "unreasonable" special assessments, or those which are not necessarily in the best interests of the unit owners. When corporate real estate interests purchase a building and manage to gain a majority stake in the homeowners' association, such expenses can increase and may even be illegal.

Ebony Lucas, an attorney at The Closing Firm, said it is difficult and expensive for longtime owners to use the protections provided by the Act in court.

"At one time there was a discussion about a condo ombudsman, so people don't have to spend so much money in litigation, and there's no arbitration," Lucas explained. "I think it would be helpful to owners to not have to go through very costly lawsuits for issues that are clearly violations of the Act."

Changes to the Illinois Condominium Property Act are not out of question. Gov. JB Pritzker signed House Bill 5246 last month, which shortens the length of time condo board members have to comply with owners' written requests to see records. The Condo Owners of Woodland Park see it as motivation to pursue more changes.


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People cannot be denied a place to live based on their race or disability in Michigan, but some are being turned down based on where they get the money to pay their rent.

Veterans using assistance, retirees on Social Security, parents who get child support or families who use housing vouchers are not protected by anti-discrimination laws. All can be denied rental opportunities even though they have consistent income.

Nora Ryan, supervising attorney for Michigan Legal Help, said such restrictions defeat the purpose of housing vouchers, which are supposed to allow people greater access to homes and neighborhoods, but the vouchers are often difficult to use.

"You have a relatively short period of time to be able to place that voucher," Ryan explained. "A lot of landlords do not accept those vouchers. You can actually run out of time to use that voucher, and you can lose it. That ticket to stable, affordable housing is cut off."

In the Michigan Legislature, Senate Bill 205, Senate Bill 206 and Senate Bill 207 would prohibit source-of-income discrimination, and allow renters who are turned down the right to seek "remedies for the discrimination" if they can prove they suffered a loss as a result. The idea was first introduced in the 2021 session, and is still in committee this year.

Jim Schaafsma, housing attorney for the Michigan Poverty Law Program, said he is keeping an eye on the U.S. debt ceiling battle in Congress as well. He worries if money for federal housing programs does not increase based on the rate of inflation, vouchers and other types of assistance could be jeopardized.

He noted Michigan's state legislation will not be enough to help the overall housing situation.

"What we need is a significant increase in the supply of affordable housing in Michigan," Schaafsma asserted. "But even more specific to the voucher program, what we need are what are known as higher payment standards because the higher the value of a voucher, the better the opportunities are for families to rent units in the place of their choice."

Adding urgency to the problem, rent for a typical home in the Detroit metro area has increased by nearly 36% in the past five years, according to Zillow's March 2023 Rental Market Report.

Rent for New Mexicans has increased 70% since 2017, while wages have only grown by 15%, which is one factor pushing more people into homelessness.

The state's Legislative Finance Committee reviewed a report this week, which showed nearly half of renters are cost-burdened and pay more than a third of their income on housing.

Kathleen Gygi, program evaluator for the Legislative Finance Committee, said new data showed the state's emergency shelter capacity has more than doubled in the past seven years, while the supply of affordable rental units has declined by 50% since 2020.

"Homelessness increased by about 48% last year over the year before," Gygi reported. "In addition, rising housing prices and lack of supply of housing units has increased the number of low-income New Mexicans who cannot afford their rent."

There are almost 4,000 homeless people in New Mexico after nearly a decade of declines. Gygi acknowledged while emergency shelter capacity has increased, especially in Albuquerque -- the state's largest city -- moving people into permanent housing has proved to be more difficult. She noted cost-burdened low-income residents face a high risk of losing shelter.

According to the report, January's "Point-in-Time" count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness showed there were plenty of beds available at many shelters across the state, but only about 50% were utilized.

Amy Whitfield, housing and homelessness adviser to the governor's office, said more work needs to be done to find solutions.

"We don't know the numbers that tell us exactly what to build, where to build it and how to build it," Whitfield pointed out. "We've got a lot of different ideas that say we need more permanent supportive housing, we need more multifamily housing. We don't really know for sure how much of that we need and which communities we need it in."

Last year the New Mexico Coalition To End Homelessness estimated about a quarter of those experiencing homelessness were coming from outside of state.