ESTABLISHED BY CITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON 1/3/2023. OUR OWN LEANETTE GALAZ WAS SEATED ON THE COMMITTEE. THANKS FOR SENDING IN YOUR LETTERS OF SUPPORT!

Whitefish’s current Strategic Housing Plan Steering Committee is set to end on December 31, 2022. The 2022 Whitefish Community Housing Roadmap recommended that this committee be re-formed into a “task force type workgroup” with a revised composition to include a wider variety of voices at the table that is more representative of our community as a whole.

The document establishing this revised committee will go before the City Council on January 3, 2023, with interviews and appointments for at-large members to occur shortly thereafter. The committee will continue to meet once per month to help implement strategies in the 2022 Whitefish Community Housing Roadmap.

The proposed makeup of the committee (to be updated when the official document is published) is:

1. One elected official

2. One representative of the Whitefish Housing Authority

3. One representative of Housing Whitefish

4. One representative of the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce

5. One representative of the Whitefish Convention and Visitor Bureau

6. One member of the public with relevant professional or personal expertise in real estate development

7. One member of the public with relevant professional or personal expertise in fundraising or financing

8. Two members of the public with relevant professional or personal expertise in housing policy, property management, housing programs, end-users of community housing programs, or housing advocacy

Shelter WF is committed to ensuring that the final two positions (#8) are filled by a housing advocate and a community housing end-user, or by two housing advocates if no community housing end-user applies. We are committed to ensuring that there is representation on the committee by at least one renter.

There are a few members of the current committee that should be retained. Shelter WF is committed to ensuring that those with anti-housing viewpoints or routinely stall and delay housing proposals are not reappointed to the new committee.