Downing tours EBURD, touts importance of workforce housing and community reinvestment

On Tuesday morning, Rep. Troy Downing toured the area as part of a week-long swing through Montana’s second congressional district during the congressional recess.

Downing’s visit came a week after City Council approved a measure allowing the EBURD to put $1 million towards the construction of an 18-unit workforce housing apartment complex.

“I understand it's tough for some jurisdictions because they're limiting their tax income. But it's for a greater good. It's fixing a problem that they're not likely to fix on their own,” Downing said, on the importance of urban renewal districts during the tour. “I think that's money well spent as we start to see this revitalization, which is going to be meaningful in the near and distant future.”

BIRD houses

At the very end of a 6-hour plus meeting on April 27, City Council approved the dispersal of $1 million in TIF money to the developers of Skyview Residences, a planned affordable workforce housing complex at North 17th Street and Third Avenue North.

In total, developers estimated the project would cost roughly $7.17 million dollars and city documents noted the apartments would be the first residential development in the EBURD's history.

The proposal was received warmly by most council members, however some said they were concerned with the high cost of development and wondered if the project represented the best use of the district’s tax increment funds.

“I can’t support this motion,” council member Roy Neese said. “I think there’s a need for this type of housing, but the cost per unit is just too high and I don’t think it’s a wise decision to throw this type of money at this type of project that would give 18 houses.”

In response to Neese’s concerns, the developer present at the meeting alongside EBURD Coordinator Heather Doty explained the environmental work needed on site prior to construction, including demolition of existing blighted structures and asbestos remediation, were a large part of the high construction costs.

Ultimately, most of council signaled their approval of the project and voted 8-2 to disperse the funds, with Neese and Tony O’Donnell being the lone dissenting votes.

In a previous interview with the Billings Gazette, Doty explained the central importance of housing in securing the future of the former industrial district.

“The infrastructure is there, the lighting is there, we have sidewalks, it is safe and a lot of the blight is removed,” she said. “In order to have a functioning community where your stores thrive, your breweries thrive and people in the streets, we need housing, that's the biggest hurdle.”

'We need to solve this problem'

Once completed, apartments in the 18-unit complex will be rented to households earning up to 80% of the Billings area median income, $54,400 and $62,160 for families of one or two respectively, as set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Billings needs housing that its workforce and lower-income residents can afford, and we are eager to help deliver it,” the developers wrote in their proposal to City Council.

Rep. Downing passed by the site on his tour and complimented the project, saying the development of workforce housing across Montana was of paramount importance for the state’s long-term economic viability.

“The biggest limiting factor that we see for recruiting and retaining talent, for bringing in doctors and teachers into a lot of communities is there's just not adequate housing for them,” Downing said. ”So we need to solve this problem, from affordability, to availability to safety and so what they're doing here with this TIF program I think is incredible.”