Housing in a human right. Working people are being driven out of town because we can’t afford to live here anymore. Join us in our fight to build actually affordable, SOCIAL HOUSING here in Bozeman!
What is Social Housing?
Social Housing is a sustainable model of publicly owned and publicly developed mixed-income housing that would remain permanently affordable. We are in a growing housing crisis and the market-based “solutions” we have relied on for decades such as tax credits and vouchers continue to subsidize private developers. It’s time to stop subsidizing private developers and start subsidizing the people.
With Social Housing, local communities have the ability to control development to meet the needs of our community in Bozeman – including deciding the cost of rent, developing in a way that meets crucial sustainability standards, and creating communities welcoming to workers, families, and pets.
Letter of Support
We Bozeman residents are unhappy with how the City Commission is addressing housing. We want the Bozeman City Commission and city staff to consult the bond counsel to see how revenue bonds could be used to fund social housing.
According to the City’s own recent Economic and Market Update report, the vacancy rate for units built in 2024 and 2025 is 44.2%, compared to 9.2% for pre-2024 units [1]. A healthy vacancy rate is between 5% and 8%. Bozeman is in a housing crisis. There are solutions to Bozeman’s housing crisis that the City Commission has refused to explore.
The city could allocate more money for housing without raising taxes. Revenue bonds could be used to fund affordable housing here in Bozeman. For example, if cities can use revenue bonds to build a new wastewater treatment plant, why can’t we do the same to build or preserve affordable housing? The City Commission and city staff are refusing to investigate this further. We urge the Commission and the city staff to consult the bond counsel and see how the use of revenue bonds could be used to fund social housing.
Sign our letter of support here!
Red Vienna’s Housing Model
Plenty of countries have successful examples of social housing. One great example of this is in Vienna, Austria. Back in 2021, Zohran Mamdani made a video with the Gravel Institute on this model. This is only one example, what we are asking is the city of Bozeman simply look at the financial possibility of implementing a similar model through the use of revenue bonds
Bozeman DSA 