Montana Must Continue Work to Close the Housing Affordability Gap for Working Families

Last legislative session, policymakers approved a bill that created a Housing GO Trust program to provide loans for the development and preservation of affordable housing. In every county in Montana, families renting their homes find a lack of availability and affordability. Montana has a shortage of 16,668 affordable, available rental homes for extremely low-income renters, and roughly two out of every ten Montanans who rent are living on extremely low incomes. Most extremely low-income people in Montana are working, seniors, or individuals living with a disability. Montana must protect state investments that increase the supply of housing affordable to working Montana families.

The 2025 Legislature invested $31.2 million into increasing the supply of affordable housing through the Housing GO Trust program. The program creates an ongoing revenue stream by functioning as a revolving loan account. Loan payments stay in the trust and earn interest. In FY 2026, the housing fund earned an estimated $3.4 million in interest. In addition to the new investment, existing loans through the Multifamily Coal Trust Home Loan Program were transferred to the Housing GO Trust program, allowing loan repayments and interest from a previous $115 million allocation to flow into the new account. By 2028, the Housing GO Trust will earn an estimated $12.6 million in income between loan repayments and additional deposits from the larger GO Trust. 

Housing Go Trust Helps Meet Need for Affordable Units

Since its passage, the Housing GO Trust has awarded 17 projects, allocating just under $30 million. All of these projects are contingent on underwriting evaluation and, in some cases, on whether they are successfully awarded federal housing funds to meet funding goals. If all projects were approved and funded as proposed, there would be a total of 1,096 new or preserved  low- and moderate-income rentals in Montana. The map below shows which communities these units would be built in.

The Housing GO Trust Must Remain Funded

In the upcoming 2027 Legislature, policymakers must continue funding to increase affordable housing development and preserve existing affordable housing for working Montanans. The Housing Trust has only been through one round of funding, and even if all the funding goes as planned, there is still a significant shortage of housing. Funding for affordable housing development is critical to having adequate housing for working Montanans.