Stakeholders discuss housing

For many, the lack of attainable and available housing in the county has grown exponentially, leading many community leaders to believe the current housing situation has reached crisis level. To shed some light on the gravity of the circumstances, Sanders County Community Development Corporation Executive Director Ray Brown convened expert panelists from around the state to discuss different resources that could work for the county.

“We’ve got some housing issues,” Brown said. “I don’t think we're alone in our battle, but I don’t think it’s something we can’t solve.”

Speakers at Monday’s housing summit offered insight on a number of technical assistance programs that allowed interested stakeholders to begin working on a set of solutions that will address the housing crunch the community is facing.

Housing needs identified at the summit focused on workforce housing, as it is one of the main struggles that has been recognized as a hindrance in community and economic development. A range of topics covered in the roundtable discussion led to a positive step in the right direction, including input from Sanders County Sanitarian Shawn Sorenson, when the conversation dove into multi-unit housing.

The question of whether or not infrastructure, such as water and sewer, was in place to handle that type of development and whether or not the surrounding land could handle the development was asked. To which Sorenson answered, “it’s variable and depends on the location.”

“The focus was on workforce housing,” Brown said. “But the discussion veered heavily into workforce development as well. Workforce housing and workforce development are two separate issues but they are intertwined. You can’t discuss one without the other.”

Brown believes conversations were positive as stakeholders were receptive to the different programs discussed at the summit. While determining the next steps moving forward, Brown says they are getting closer to developing a task force catered to tackling these specific types of issues. Keeping the narrative focused on workforce housing, Brown said he was happy to see that the discussions led attendees to look at the bigger picture while addressing opportunities and barriers as they work toward aiding the community and its needs.