HOUSING WAGE FOR GALLATIN COUNTY MONTANA UNREALISTIC FOR THE WORKFORCE POPULATION

It baffles my mind how they report that a person needs to earn a minimum of  $21,285 a year to afford a Studio Apartment in Bozeman, Montana.  These apartments are far out of reach for someone living on a fixed income, and can not even work part time to supplement their SSDI without causing sever pain and possible damage to themselves physically.  But that is BozAngels,oh, sorry I mean Bozeman, Montana, has made common practice of squeezing out those who are not as financially astute as the larger populous they wish to attract. When I was a kid, back in the 60's and 70's, we called Bozeman, Bozo for Bozo the clown.

According to http://city-salaries.careertrends.com/d/a/Montana, all of the service industry, forestry people, and educational people can not afford to live in Gallatin County.  I find this quite humorous for a state that depends on Agriculture and Tourism for their bread and butter.

Check out this link, http://nlihc.org/oor/montana, at the National low Income Housing Coalition website.  They have loads of great information on rental housing for low income, affordable, workforce populations and there are tons of ways to get involved and stop the insanity we find predominantly in areas like Bozeman, Montana, who would rather their service people commute to Bozeman from far out laying areas, than offer decent affordable housing that wasn't built for those who are use to the finer things in life.

If you would like to make Affordable, Low-Income, Subsidized, what ever you wish to classify it, Workforce housing a priority in this election then go to : http://www.makeroomusa.org/, educate yourself, sign up as an INDIVIDUAL, you do not have to be part of an organization.  Truly one voice has the opportunity to change thousands of lives by answering this one call to action.  If you work in the service, tourism, or educational industries then stand up and let your voice be heard.

You can call Senator Jon Tester at:(406) 586-4450, after you have gone over the educational material on the makeroomusa.org site and ask him to make housing a priority. If you don't want to call the Senator, perhaps a personally worded letter about your experiences of finding affordable housing or a rental unit that is of acceptable size for your situation is like, what you need him to do to correct the issues that prevent honest, hardworking, people; some who are disabled and veterans from finding safe, decent, acceptable housing that allows us to have and grow a life, not house us until we die with no friends, family, or anything we value to make life just a little more accepting.

Senator Tester's address in Bozeman is: 1 E Main St #202, Bozeman, MT 59715, you can send a copy to his D.C. office as well, just to make sure someone receive your concerns at: 724 Hart Bldg, Washington, DC 20510.  It wouldn't be a bad idea to leave a voice message as well at : (202) 224-2644.

Below you will find other Politician information so that we may make sure all of those who are in charge of making sure our basic needs are included in the management of this county is raised to the priority level that it so rightly deserves.  After all if there is no one in town to scrub toilets, pick up dog poo, and teach the children of those in higher earning brackets, what will they do?  What will they do?

STEVE DAINES
REPUBLICAN

Washington, DC Office
320 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-2651
FAX: 202-224-9412
E-Mail

RYAN ZINKE
REPUBLICAN

Washington, DC Office
113 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3211
Fax: (202) 225-5687
E-Mail

JON TESTER
DEMOCRAT

Washington, DC Office
724 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510-2604
202-224-2644 
FAX: 202-224-8594
E-Mail

More importantly, what will you do?  Will you answer this call to action and let the powers that be know how difficult it is to put a roof over your head, pay a child-sitter, car insurance, health insurance, electricity, gas, water/sewer, and least of all food on your table?  Will you ask them to make housing a priority in this coming election?  Or will you continue to stand by and hope for the best because you are to busy, not sure you want to get involved, or just don't think you have anything of value to add to the conversation?  The more people who call, the more likely we will get to have that conversation and level the rental playing field.

MONTANA RANKS 37TH NATIONWIDE WITH RENTERS PAYING MORE THAN 50% OF TOTAL INCOME FOR RENT!!!

Send an email

Our future supporters are in your inbox.
Cut and paste the sample email below to send to your colleagues, friends and family.

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Subject: Let’s Make Room

Hi [friends and colleagues],

I want you to know about the Make Room campaign, which is working to put the 11 million American families whose rent consumes more than half their incomes on the national agenda. Make Room is sharing real people’s stories and promoting solutions —all to urge our nation’s leaders to act. As part of the Concerts for the 1st series, top musical artists are lending their voices with performances in the living rooms of affected families. I’m excited to  be part of the beginning of this new effort and I hope you’ll join me today.

I would personally appreciate it if you could do these easy things to help us spread the word about Make Room and the families we’re aiming to help:

- Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@MakeRoomUSA)

- Sign up your email on the website to stay informed and hear about new ways to act. (Expect about 1-2 email updates a month and your email address won’t be shared).

- Forward this email to others and help spread the word about the campaign. One in 4 families who rent are affected by the rental crisis. It will take all of us to get our country’s leaders to pay more attention to the needs of struggling families.

Thank you for all you can do to help Make Room for everyone trying to make ends meet.

Send a Letter to the Editor

When the news media reports on rental housing in your area, you can use this template to quickly respond and bring attention to senior renters.

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To the editor:

For low-income people in [CITY/STATE], getting a job is only half the battle.(“[ARTICLE TITLE]”)

 The twin challenges of rapidly rising housing costs and stagnant wages mean even working families struggle to make ends meet, threatening household stability and our economy as a whole.

Experts generally advise renters to avoid paying more than 30 percent of their pretax income on housing costs, including rent and utilities. But rising rents and weak wage growth mean that’s increasingly difficult: A growing percentage of workers are paying more than the recommended 30 percent of income just to keep a roof over their heads – and in some cases far more.

A new report by Make Room, a national campaign to give renters a voice, found that in 2014, 20 million working adults paid more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

That’s a 22 percent increase from 2005, even as the number of workers overall grew by just two percent during the same time period.

It’s almost impossible to provide a steady life for your family when your rent keeps going up and your paychecks aren’t getting any bigger.

The Make Room analysis highlights the need to focus on the how to improve the lives of low-income families, an issue that deserves far more attention from our elected officials. We desperately need a bipartisan approach to ending the rental housing crisis and helping communities across America thrive.

Our policymakers should be working on serious, workable plans to increase the supply of affordable homes, direct scarce public resources to where they are needed most and ensure lower-income workers earn fair wages that are enough to live on.

Housing and wages are inextricably linked: Housing is typically a family’s largest monthly expense, and our local economy simply cannot thrive when a growing number of households have little buying power because they barely earn enough to keep a roof overhead.

To break this cycle, we must tackle these issues at the same time – lifting up the lowest-income workers and strengthening our economy in the process.

[Name][Organization][Local Address/Contact Information]