Housing Policy Initiative

In this episode, we hear from Montana state lawmakers Daniel and Katie Zolnikov about the bipartisan legislation they championed to address rising concerns about access to housing. And Indigenous advocates in Montana, Jody Cahoon Perez, Tonya Plummer, and Patrick Yawakie, discuss how they’re helping their Tribal communities seek more affordable and culturally appropriate housing.

Mortgages are essential financial tools that create a pathway to homeownership for millions of Americans each year. In recent years, however, many homebuyers have struggled to obtain small mortgages to purchase low-cost homes, those priced under $150,000. This problem has garnered the attention of federal regulators, including the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), who view small mortgages as important tools to increase wealth-building and homeownership opportunities in financially undeserved communities.

Across the country in the wide expanses of Montana, it was easy less than a decade ago to find a comfortable family home in Bozeman for $250,000. Today, many of those same houses sell for more than $600,000, with prices often driven up by people moving in from more expensive states who have sold a house and have ready cash to buy what they want.

A new analysis of rent prices and homelessness in American cities demonstrates the strong connection between the two: homelessness is high in urban areas where rents are high, and homelessness rises when rents rise.