MISSOULA — Over the past year and a half, federal funding for local municipalities has been rocky, to say the least. Missoula has had some of its federal dollars pulled, including one example from a project intended to increase safety along the East Broadway corridor.
But that doesn’t mean that federal dollars have completely left, as if they did, Missoula would be in a very different situation.
Every year, the City of Missoula receives roughly $800,000 from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
And with that, every year, the City of Missoula has to file a report regarding the money it receives for housing projects, and that report is now about to come out.
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This money goes across the city, helping further the city’s goal of bringing more affordable and obtainable housing to the Garden City.
“Without these funds, we would not see nearly as many housing units, homes that are kind of below average income residents could afford. So I think they're really important integral to maintaining our housing stock,” said Montana James, deputy director of the community development division of the city’s Department of Community Planning, Development and Innovation.
James says HUD funding goes towards two main items: services and construction.
Some of the services funded include a staff position at the Poverello Center and providing childcare through the parks and recreation department.
But it’s investing the money in construction projects that may be the most tangible examples of the city reaching toward its goals.
“The really big construction projects that we devoted a lot of our funds to a few years ago were like the Valagio project through the Missoula Housing Authority,” said James.
Organizations and nonprofits, like the Missoula Housing Authority, play a large role in using the funding the city receives, as the city will at times directly inject HUD funds into a project.
But there can be competition between the organizations as they’re vying for the same limited funds. Sam Oliver, director of the Missoula Housing Authority, says that Missoula is unique, as the nonprofit community understands that they need to work together to achieve their shared goal.
“A lot of us nonprofits will actually meet ahead of time with the city. We'll examine the funding allotment. And then we'll all talk about projects that we have coming up in the future. And there are times where our nonprofit family here in Missoula go so far as to say, you know what, this year, I'm stepping back. I'm going to take a break because I see you have a project that needs this money right now, or your project won't succeed. So there's a lot of collaboration that I'm proud of in Missoula because we're competing for the same funds,” said Oliver.
Besides the services and ground-up construction projects, many of the funds also often go towards helping low-income residents rehabilitate their homes.
Overall, from 2021-2025, the city invested over $6.7 million, benefitting over 2,000 households.
