"all hands on deck to be able to fix this housing crisis."

“In the situation we're in,” said Andy Shirtliff, executive director of the Montana Building Industry Association and a Helena city commissioner, “it needs to be all hands on deck to be able to fix this housing crisis.” 

Commissioner Shirtliff speaking with a home builder

it needs to be all hands on deck to be able to fix this housing crisis.

“I grew up in Montana,” he said. “I was born here, raised here, and I can remember going to places and saying, ‘Oh, I remember when it used to look like this. I remember when nobody knew about it.’” 

As the need for new housing increased in the state’s fast-growing cities, higher prices pushed out longtime residents. And those displaced people, Shirtliff said, were disproportionately those who worked locally, in those communities, including in the building trades.

...adds into the time and the cost of the house.

“That put a strain on our workforce,” he said. “And so, you know, trying to find people, trying to keep people, trying to train people – that adds into the time and the cost of the house.” 

It needs to be a partnership between the city, the county and the state and the private sector

“It needs to be a partnership between the city, the county and the state and the private sector on what the needs are, how to address those needs and the reason why we have particular types of zoning, the reason why we have permitting or why annexation is the way it is,” Shirtliff said.

For More: Helena Independent Record