More than a half dozen Whitefish business representatives stepped before City Council on Jan. 4 to show support for a planned study on the city’s workforce housing needs. 

“There isn’t enough people living in town to work here,” said Paula Greenstein, owner of Wasabi. “It’s worth putting money into creating an action plan.”

“It’s pretty clear that the business owners feel this is something we need,” added Marcus Duffey, general manager of Great Northern Brewery.

“We have reached a real crisis level,” said Doug Reed, owner of Whitefish Lake Restaurant, pointing to two restaurants in town that couldn’t open certain days last summer because of a staffing shortage.

Catherine Todd with North Valley Hospital said of the hospital’s approximately 400 employees only 36 percent live in Whitefish, and 54 percent live in Kalispell or Columbia Falls.

“People come to work at North Valley Hospital, but then they leave because they are unable to afford living in Whitefish,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of workers decline offers after they look at the cost of housing.”

The Whitefish Chamber of Commerce asked the city to provide financial support for a workforce housing needs assessment and plan, which it estimates at a cost of $55,000 to $65,000. City Council responded by approving a commitment of up to $60,000.

Chamber Executive Director Kevin Gartland said there seems to be three types of housing — season, year-round rental and purchase of homes — that are of concern in Whitefish.

“There’s very few people who don’t see housing as an issue in town,” he said. “Everyone in town has their own story about it and we all want to see something done. We want to study the situation and come up with a plan for how to address it.”

Mayor John Mulhfeld noted that it has been several years since the city’s housing needs assessment has been updated and getting this new study underway is important.

“A needs assessment is the first step to defining what is a problem for Whitefish,” he said. “And more importantly what are those next steps to address the issue.”

Councilor Andy Feury was blunt in his assessment of the situation. He said there are presumably two solutions that the study can point to — a need for higher density development and requiring affordable housing — both of which have been rejected by neighbors and developers.

“This is an issue we’ve looked at for 20 years and one that we’ve failed at for 20 years,” Feury said.“I’m more than happy to fund a needs assessment, but unless we, as a community, really address the problem and are open to what the solutions are out there we will end up back in the same place.”

Following a workforce housing summit in September, a task force was created to begin addressing affordable housing, and to bring recommendations to the city on how the community could tackle the problem. The study is the first recommendation from the task force.

Gartland said the last housing study completed for Whitefish was in 2007 and conditions have changed so much since then it’s important to have a new study and plan that will provide hard facts and goals for those looking to fund solutions to the problem.

“The chamber board, along with City Council, is anxious to stop talking about this and do something,” Gartland said.

A housing study takes between six months and a year to complete. The housing task force is creating a request for proposals to hire a firm for the study, which they would like to see completed by the end of 2016.