HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-13-25 Public Comment - A. Lincke - Retroactive submission of written public commentFrom:Anja Lincke
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Cc:Emma Bode; Joey Morrison; Terry Cunningham; jmadjic@bozeman.net; Douglas Fischer; Chuck Winn
Subject:[EXTERNAL][SENDER UNVERIFIED]Retroactive submission of written public comment
Date:Tuesday, March 11, 2025 6:34:25 PM
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3-11-25 Commission Public Comment
Good Evening Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Commissioners, and City staff. My name is Anja
Lincke, and I’m speaking on behalf of Forward Montana.
Last month I told the commission that we created a survey that mirrored the city’s survey on
housing priorities in an effort to bridge the gap of missing young people and renter data. If you
recall, the city’s survey had 203 respondents that disclosed their age. 12 respondents (or 5%)
were ages 18-24. The census says that 32% of Bozeman is 18-24 years old. From that, we had
a survey goal to gather enough data to proportionately fill the gap, meaning we had to collect
84 responses from 18-24 year olds--and we succeeded!
To share a little bit more about our data:
We had 181 respondents.
82% of respondents were renters
82% were ages 18-35
43% pay more than 30% of their income on rent.
We would like to collaborate with the city to determine the best way to incorporate this
data into the decisions made about the final draft of the UDC. With that, we plan to share
all of our collected data, along with a memo about our methods and limitations with the city,
staff, and community at large very shortly. As we proceed with analysis, we will continue to
loop in the city and commissioners. I invite any feedback or ideas about how to best engage
with our data. While we have not yet done any robust analysis, here are some results we can
speak to:
Affordable housing creation was the most frequently selected priority with 71%
of our respondents listing it as one of their top-five priorities.
58% of our respondents do not think building height should be a priority of this
commission and of staff, which was the most frequently selected variable in that
category.
We commend the city’s earlier outreach effort. We know young people can be challenging to
reach-- but care deeply. Forward Montana is committed to continuing to bridge the priorities
we know young people hold into real policies in the UDC, and we hope you consider young
people and renters seriously as major stakeholders in how the city moves forward.
If you have questions, please reach out to me at this email address.
Warmly,
--
Anja Lincke
She/They | Housing Campaign Manager
o: (406) 542-8683c: (406) 638-1183e: anja@forwardmontana.orgw: forwardmontana.org
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