Affordable Housing Development for Livingston in the Works

With 13.2% of Livingston’s total population (last estimated in 2016 at 7,401) in poverty, the addition of an affordable housing development would greatly benefit citizens who are currently working and earning lower wages.

How is This Problem Being Addressed?

Over the next 10 years, the Montana Board of Housing has assigned $27 million in credits to help fund affordable housing projects not only in Livingston, but in Billings, Butte, Kalispell and Lewistown as well. Homeword, Inc., a Missoula-based, non-profit affordable housing developer, has been awarded $5.8 million in tax credits to transform the old Livingston Memorial Hospital building into 34 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The new apartment complex, Bluebunch Flats, is named after Montana’s official state grass, Bluebunch Wheatgrass. In keeping with Homeword’s mission of sustainability, hospital rooms in the existing Memorial Hospital building will be renovated and converted into individual apartments.

Units will available to residents who make between 40% and 60% of the area median income. As of last year, median household income for Livingston was $40,358, while per capital income was just shy of $27,000. Although rent prices are not yet set in stone, they will likely range from $425 for a studio to $800 for a two-bedroom. Construction is set to begin in the summer of 2018, with a projected completion date of mid-2019.

Other Affordable Housing Projects Around Montana:

• Billings: Heights Senior Apartments— 38-unit project for senior citizens
• Butte: Copper Ridge Apartments— 32-unit project for families
• Kalispell: Courtyard Apartments— 32-unit acquisition rehabilitation project for families
• Lewistown: Meadows Senior Apartments— 35-unit acquisition rehabilitation project for senior citizens