The Jefferson County Commission is considering enrolling the county in the Montana Community Reinvestment Plan (MCRP), a new program that aspires to ease the path to ownership for first-time buyers.
MCRP would provide residents buying their first home with financing up to 30 percent of the property’s purchase price. It is a shared-equity program, allowing borrowers to secure deed-restricted mortgages at below-market prices in exchange for certain equity concessions upon the sale of the home.
“All we have to do to get access to this money is pass a resolution,” said Jefferson County Commission Chair Cory Kirsch. “It’s that easy, and we really don’t want to be the only county to miss out because we didn’t want to deal with it in time.”
Should Jefferson County choose to pass a resolution enrolling in MCRP before the Dec. 31 deadline, it would receive, through a Community Reinvestment Organization (CRO), roughly $500,000 to distribute to resident applicants. $50 million has been made available state-wide, with individual counties allocated funding based on their population.
In order to qualify for assistance, homebuyers must earn between 60% and 140% of the local area median income, which, for Jefferson County, is presently $36,117.
“It’s really exciting, to be able to get some folks into a home who would otherwise have a really difficult time doing that right now,” said Headwaters Foundation Executive Director Kelly Sullivan. The Headwaters Foundation is working with Jefferson and six neighboring counties to recommend a CRO, which it hopes will be accepted unanimously.
House Bill 819, which was signed into law in June, 2023, authorized the new program and the state funding to support it. It requires counties to pass a resolution acknowledging their participation in MCRP and accepting a CRO administrator. Each CRO is then required to fulfill a dollar for dollar match in order to receive state funding.
According to Sullivan, Headwaters is choosing between two potential CROS: NeighborWorks Montana, a housing education and financing organization based in Great Falls, and the Housing Authority of Billings, a similar group based in Billings. Headwaters anticipates finalizing a CRO recommendation before the Thanksgiving holiday.
“So long as there’s room for more CROs, if a county has a local organization they feel really strongly about they are welcome to go with them,” said Montana Governor’s Office representative Mark Blaisdell. “But, while the county doesn’t need to do anything, it’s important to pick a CRO that can fulfill the match requirement. Which is why it might be valuable to listen to whichever local economic development group is helping present counties a recommendation.”
Once a CRO has been selected, and that CRO has fulfilled local match requirements, county residents can begin applying to receive assistance. Any funding received from the CRO amounts to an interest-free loan that the resident buyer would not have to repay so long as they reside in the property.
If a buyer chooses to sell their home, the sale price would be limited to the original total cost plus an allowed increase of one percent for each year owned by the resident purchaser. The CRO would receive the listing price minus the allowed and accumulated homeowner equity, allowing for it to expand its available lending resources while helping to keep local housing affordable.
“There are other shared equity programs out there, within other states and communities that do some of the same provisions, but this program was really a home-grown concept,” said Blaisdell. “And it was ultimately driven by the Legislature. It was not something that came as a genesis out of the Governor’s Office or any of the agencies.”
Any resident who purchases a home in partnership with a CRO has the ability to buy out the deed and assume full, outright ownership of the property, though specifics of such arrangements can vary between CROs.
“Yes, this is largely a short term opportunity that will help us get people into home ownership that are probably paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent. We want these people to get some tax deductions and some equity, but we also don’t want them to have to be under the stated deed restrictions forever. And if there are ways where we can get them to buy it out a bit quicker, we’re definitely going to explore those,” said Blaisdell.
