By Bay Stephens EBS LOCAL EDITOR
BIG SKY- On July 12, Habitat for Humanity
of Gallatin Valley and Big Sky School District, along with AmeriCorp
volunteers, broke ground on the first-ever teacher housing project in Big Sky.
The development will consist of two triplexes, providing six school-owned units
on school district property.
“We’re excited to break ground on a
groundbreaking accomplishment,” BSSD Superintendent Dustin Shipman said of the
project; it’s the first time that Habitat has partnered with a school district
to provide housing in Montana.
The project will help address ongoing struggles
the school district faces, from losing teachers that commute from Bozeman—which
comprises half of the school district’s workforce—after an average of four or
five years, or the crisis that teachers renting in Big Sky face when landlords
suddenly give them a month to clear out so the house or apartment can enter the
short-term rental market.
Coming in at approximately $130,000 per
unit, the school district plans to rent the triplexes below market value.
Habitat for Humanity Gallatin Valley was
awarded $400,000 in Big Sky resort tax funding by the Big Sky Resort Area
District board of directors in June specifically for the project. The development,
which was estimated in March to cost approximately $900,000, was also funded by
a $600,000 levy voted in by the community in May.
According to David Magistrelli, executive
director of Habitat for Humanity of Gallatin Valley, the first triplex should have
exteriors finished by early October and be livable by late fall. Construction
will begin on the second triplex as soon as possible spring 2020.
Magistrelli added that the project is
about a month behind schedule at this point due to a combination of obtaining
approval from the county and the respective homeowner association and the
challenge of finding available contractors in Big Sky’s thriving building
market.
“As soon as [the units are] done, we want
teachers living in them,” Shipman told EBS. He said that teachers who choose to
live alone would pay more than those that room with other school staff.
The school board is still determining
many of the details concerning the units, Shipman said, such as reasonable
occupancy per unit, rent costs and other factors. This dialogue will continue
at their July 24 board meeting.
