City Councilor says Efforts Underway to Build Affordable Housing

Ward 3 Missoula City Councilor Gwen Jones spoke with KGVO News this week about the city budget, and the subject of affordable housing was raised.

Jones referenced the Mullan Area Master Plan, which will extend and build new streets from Mullan Road all the way to West Broadway, with many different projects to be added, and many are residential.

“That entire area has been undergoing the master planning process,” said Jones. “It's called the Mullan Road Master Plan, which means instead of just doing haphazard development, we have a master plan so that there's a good road system and good connectivity. You create good communities where there are places to buy a gallon of milk and you have good parks.”

The master plan will not only be commercial development, but housing will also play a part, especially with so many new families relocating to places like Missoula due to COVID 19 in major urban areas.

“I would recommend you look take a look at that master plan,” she said. “It is not yet finalized but a lot of work has been done on it. And yes, there will be, first of all a spectrum of housing so you'll have some single family homes, but then you have duplexes, multiplexes, townhouses, row houses, all sorts of different levels. So that helps.”

Jones recommended that readers on Newstalk KGVO dot com and listeners to the radio station contact their city councilors to express their concerns about the need for more affordable housing.

“The first step is just going to the City of Missoula website and you can look there and there's a map of the wards,” she said. “You can look it up, right there and you can see where your house is located what Ward you’re in and then if you know for example, if you're in Ward four, you look up your city councilors and all of their contact information is on the city website also, so that's always the best start.”

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