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Home My WebLink About08-25-26 Public Comment - N. Stein - Headwaters __ Public Comment on B-3 Work Session zFrom:Nathan Stein To:Bozeman Public Comment; Joey Morrison; Douglas Fischer; Alison Sweeney; Emma Bode; Jennifer Madgic Cc:Chuck Winn Subject:[EXTERNAL]Headwaters // Public Comment on B-3 Work Session Date:Tuesday, August 25, 2026 5:31:08 PM Attachments:image.png260825 Headwaters Comment on Building Heights - Submission Format.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Hello Commissioners and City Manager Winn, I'm submitting the attached written comment ahead of tonight's work session. I'll see you all there but thought I'd share a written copy as well. Cheers, Nathan Nathan Stein Executive Director | Headwaters Community Housing Trust 406.922.9554 | nstein@headwatershousing.org www.headwatershousing.org Book time to meet with me From:Nathan Stein To:Bozeman Public Comment; Joey Morrison; Douglas Fischer; Alison Sweeney; Emma Bode; Jennifer Madgic Cc:Chuck Winn Subject:[EXTERNAL]Re: Headwaters // Public Comment on B-3 Work Session Date:Tuesday, August 25, 2026 5:34:23 PM Attachments:image.pngimage.png CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. All, apologies for the double email — it looks like the Pew link doesn't work unless you download the doc. Here it is for easier access. Nathan Nathan Stein Executive Director | Headwaters Community Housing Trust 406.922.9554 | nstein@headwatershousing.org www.headwatershousing.org Book time to meet with me From: Nathan Stein Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2026 5:30 PM To: comments@bozemanmt.gov <comments@bozemanmt.gov>; Joey Morrison <joey.morrison@bozemanmt.gov>; Douglas Fischer <douglas.fischer@bozemanmt.gov>; Alison Sweeney <alison.sweeney@bozemanmt.gov>; Emma Bode <ebode@bozeman.net>; Jennifer Madgic <jennifer.madgic@bozemanmt.gov> Cc: Chuck Winn <cwinn@bozeman.net> Subject: Headwaters // Public Comment on B-3 Work Session Hello Commissioners and City Manager Winn, I'm submitting the attached written comment ahead of tonight's work session. I'll see you all there but thought I'd share a written copy as well. Cheers, Nathan Nathan Stein Executive Director | Headwaters Community Housing Trust 406.922.9554 | nstein@headwatershousing.org www.headwatershousing.org Book time to meet with me Commission Comment – Building Heights Nathan Stein, Executive Director, Headwaters Community Housing Trust 8/25/2026 My name is Nathan Stein, I’m the Executive Director of Headwaters Community Housing Trust. We’re a nonprofit powering community vibrance and economic opportunity through permanent housing affordability. Headwaters works towards a more affordable Gallatin Valley through two distinct programs – first is our development work, through which we are creating homes that are permanently affordable to middle-income households. Second is our effort to support housing policy that creates a healthier and more affordable housing market for all Gallatin Valley residents. In this latter capacity, I am asking this Commission to leave the UDC in place as it was adopted this past December after a 2-year engagement process. Bozeman is a wonderful place to live for a multitude of reasons, from our access to outdoor amenities, to our world-class university, to our arts and culture. For all these reasons, Bozeman will always be a growing community, and because Bozeman will always be a growing community, we need to always be building an abundance of housing of all kinds at all price points. When our housing supply doesn’t meet local demand, home prices rise, hurting Bozemanites of all income levels. It’s fair to say that homes supplied in 7-story buildings right off of Main Street are unlikely to be “Capital A” affordable. But new housing – even at higher price points – reduces competition for existing homes, which in turn creates opportunities for Bozeman households all the way down the income ladder through “moving chains.” Alternatively, when there isn’t new housing, high-end buyers instead bid up the prices of existing older homes, pushing middle income buyers down the chain. This is how 700sf starter homes become $750,000 forever homes, out of reach of most Bozeman households. So, we need new housing even if it’s not priced below-market. And when we’re building homes at the high end of the ladder, it’s better that we build densely in our few truly walkable parts of town. Denser development in our urban core will keep more cars off of our streets by allowing people to live where they also work and play, and contribute to an increasingly vibrant downtown Bozeman, which in turn creates more jobs and opportunities for Bozemanites of all incomes. I understand that our development code, like all City policy, needs to be a living document. But because it takes years to build housing, it takes a long time for the product of code updates to show up in the real world. In the meantime, housing producers, both non-profit and for-profit, are relying on a certain level of predictability in the local code regime. And while I could certainly recommend changes to other parts of our code, our community will benefit from some restraint from this Commission against reopening a conversation that lasted years and ended only months ago. I’d instead propose that the commission continue to track conversations and changes to be revisited in a more thorough code update years from now. Thanks for your hard work and for the opportunity to comment. Nathan Stein Executive Director Headwaters Community Housing Trust TOPIC S:B UI L D C OMMUNI TIES PROJECTS:HOUSI NG POLICY Building More Housing Creates “Moving Chains” of Affordability Video May 26, 2026 Less than a minute 9/1/26, 12:18 PM Building More Housing Creates “Moving Chains” of Affordability | The Pew Charitable Trusts https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/video/2026/building-more-housing-creates-moving-chains-of-affordability 1/3 “It brought so much joy to my life knowing that Michael had a chance to be a kid again.” That’s Titi, a Washington, D.C., resident whose son, Michael, was placed in foster care while she was living in a shelter. Over a year later, she was able to reunite with him when she found a stable place to live. Titi’s story illustrates the real-life consequences of the U.S. housing shortage—currently estimated at 4 million to 7 million homes—and how building more housing of any kind can help increase availability and improve affordability. How so? It’s called a moving chain. Research conducted by Evan Mast, an assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame, shows that when a community builds new housing—including high-end apartments—it creates vacancies downstream, in lower- and middle-income neighborhoods, as people move to bigger or nicer (and often more expensive) homes. Using this framework, The Pew Charitable Trusts found that Titi’s home in a dedicated low-income apartment building would not have been available if a luxury apartment building had not been built in downtown D.C. 10 years earlier. By allowing more apartments to be built—even luxury apartments—D.C. created a moving chain that freed up at least five homes—including Titi’s. “It is so heartwarming to know that through the efforts of producing more housing, this woman has now found a home and her family has been reunited,” says Nina Albert, D.C.’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development. 9/1/26, 12:18 PM Building More Housing Creates “Moving Chains” of Affordability | The Pew Charitable Trusts https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/video/2026/building-more-housing-creates-moving-chains-of-affordability 2/3 Explore TAGS Economic mobility Housing Local policy PLACES Washington DC People Alex Horowitz Project Director Housing Policy Media Contact Omar Martinez Officer, Communications 202.540.6849 9/1/26, 12:18 PM Building More Housing Creates “Moving Chains” of Affordability | The Pew Charitable Trusts https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/video/2026/building-more-housing-creates-moving-chains-of-affordability 3/3