Montana Housing Survey Aims to Support Low-Income Residents

Missoula, MT ( KGVO-AM News ) - The Montana Department of Commerce has launched an online survey to help determine how much more assistance that low-income Montanans will need to afford housing.

I spoke with Housing Division Administrator Cheryl Cohen about the purpose of the survey.

"The Department of Commerce is the statewide public housing authority, and we're undertaking a fair market rent survey," began Cohen. "It's under some prescribed federal laws established by HUD (Housing and Urban Development), and we're hoping that the data from this study will better inform and better reflect what our actual rental rates are in the state of Montana versus some of the methodology used to set fair market rents for our federal rental assistance programs."

You May Receive a Call to Take a Survey from the State Commerce Department

Cohen described the parameters of the survey.

"With these rental assistance programs we're really looking at serving folks, including Montanans who are experiencing a disability or seniors on fixed incomes who really rely on federal rental assistance programs for housing stability," she said. "The intent of this survey is to gather better, more accurate, real-time market data, and then to provide that data to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under what's called an 'exception payment rate standard'."

The Idea is to Help Get More Housing Allowance Funds from HUD

Cohen said the whole idea is to gather information that will convince federal authorities to increase the help with rents for their clients at the Department of Commerce.

"They'll evaluate the data that we get through this survey, and the goal is to see if we can increase our voucher payment standards for these rental assistance programs so the recipients of the funds have a better chance of getting the assistance they need and to stay stably housed."

Cohen said the Survey is Just the First Step in the Process

Cohen said the survey is just the first step in the process of getting more federal funds.

"We can't pre-predict the outcomes of the survey, nor what HUD will decide, nor what the federal budget will be for these programs, but regardless, we want to use all flexibilities allowed under these federal regulations, really to support those Montanans experiencing disabilities and seniors on fixed incomes," she said.

Cohen hopes to get initial results of the survey before the end of the year.

Get more information about the survey by calling the Montana Department of Commerce at 406-841-2840.