RENT LOCAL Program Hits 100
Providing Homes for Over 250 Big Sky Locals
RENT LOCAL creates immediate rental inventory by providing cash to owners who turn their vacant properties or vacation rentals into homes for local workers.

RENT LOCAL stimulates the growth of long-term rental inventory during periods of low vacancy rates. Generally, a vacancy rate of 3% indicates a healthy balance between supply and demand. However, the Big Sky Community Housing Action Plan published in 2018 reported a 1% long-term rental vacancy rate; by 2022, this rate dropped to 0%.

BSCHT estimates the community needs RENT LOCAL until it can build additional rental inventory or until the market can naturally produce it.
Give Big, powered by One Valley Community Foundation and sponsored by the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation, has raised $11,400,927 in eight years.

Give Big is an online, 24-hour celebration of giving to connect generous community members with causes they care about most. Online giving starts May 4.
Powder Light Bedrooms for Rent
Leases Available to Big Sky Businesses
Designed for the seasonal workforce by Lone Mountain Land Company, Powder Light offers double-occupancy bedrooms with shared living spaces.

*BSCHT serves as the leasing agent for 48 bedrooms in Powder Light, available as employee housing to businesses registered with Resort Tax.

LMLC leases each bedroom for $1,700 per month. Several bedrooms are still available to lease. Please email BSCHT for more information.
*BSCHT secured its involvement in Powder Light with its access to designated workforce water rights enabled by the 1% increase in Resort Tax for Infrastructure. BSCHT made no financial contributions. Lone Mountain Land Company constructed and funded the project using private funding. Neither Resort Tax or other public funding sources contributed to the development.
GOOD DEEDS PROGRAM A SUCCESS
Applications Paused Until Summer 2023
BSCHT launched Good Deeds in 2022 and spent the entirety of the program's funding to deed restrict seven existing homes for local occupancy only.

Each Good Deeds restriction transfers with ownership and permanently prohibits short-term renting.

At a cost of 10-16% of a property’s value, Good Deeds utilizes existing homes to provide community housing faster and cheaper than building new inventory.

BSCHT continues to pause applications and anticipates additional program funding by July of 2023.

PHOTO (by Jack Reaney, courtesy of Explore Big Sky): Beth and Jerome Marlington used funding from Good Deeds to purchase their family's first home in November of 2022.
On April 5 and 6, BSCHT's board and staff met with Agnew Beck Consulting to begin outlining a strategic plan to address the community's housing needs outlined in the 2022 Housing Study.
The below "Spectrum of Housing Needs" graph from BSCHT's 2022 Housing Study represents both rental and ownership needs for residents.

The outer portion of the rainbow shows the funding sources available at various income levels to produce more community housing.

RED (30-80% AMI): Federal programs provide subsidies for projects targeting very low to moderate incomes. BSCHT's RiverView Apartments will use federal funds to build 25 apartments off Highway 64. Big Sky Apartments also used federal funding for construction costs.

ORANGE (80-250% AMI): Because federal subsidies do not support projects for incomes that exceed 80% AMI, middle-income housing is the most expensive type of housing to build. High construction costs add to the difficulty as middle incomes cannot cover all of developers' expenses, forcing communities to find additional funding sources for large financial gaps.

GREEN (300% and Up): Big Sky's real estate market currently provides ownership opportunities for those earning at least 300% AMI.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) determines the Area Median Income for every county in the U.S. on an annual basis. Area Median Income, known as AMI, is the midpoint in income for households in a region. If you line up each household from poorest to wealthiest, the middle is 100% AMI.

"By combining creativity and vision with practical implementation, Agnew::Beck helps clients accomplish short-term objectives and set out a clear path for long-term success.

We are committed, passionate, and practical partners, working together to identify and tackle a project’s most important issues with smart, effective solutions, and with community stakeholders at the center of the process."
Montana Free Press
"What’s on the table as lawmakers negotiate major spending proposals"

"With the 2023 Montana Legislature entering its final weeks, one of the key items remaining on lawmakers’ to-do list is balancing the state budget — squaring the state’s expected revenues with agency budgets, tax cuts and one-off spending bills that, in some cases, total hundreds of millions of dollars...

Here’s a look at which of the larger budget bills considered by this year’s Legislature are still elbowing for their portion of chow...
HOUSING & INFRASTRUCTURE
  • House Bill 355, which allocates $267 million for infrastructure grants to maintain drinking water systems, sewer systems, roads and other facilities owned by counties, cities, towns and school districts... the bill passed the House 77-15 March 11 and is pending in the Senate.

  • House Bill 819 would put $50 million into helping middle-income workers purchase homes by providing mortgage assistance for deed-restricted properties... the bill passed the House 74-25 April 4 and is pending in the Senate.

  • House Bill 927 would put an additional $115 million into the state coal trust fund endowment and use it to offer low-interest loans to support affordable housing construction projects... It passed the House 67-32 March 11 and is pending in the Senate."
CONTACT US
PHONE
406.995.3696
Big Sky Community Housing Trust is a tax-exempt public charity (federal tax ID #84-3391892). All contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.