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10/24/2025
“Missoula This Week” is reported and written By Katie Fairbanks. Send your Missoula news and tips to [email protected].
While Missoula and Lahaina, Hawaii, seem very different, the mountain town is looking at the role a community land trust plays in the Maui community following a deadly wildfire in 2023.
Autumn Ness, executive director of Lahaina Community Land Trust, described how her organization is helping locals rebuildat the Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition’s 2025 annual gathering in Missoula earlier this month. The coalition supports CLTs based in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. The keynote presentation focused on how community land trusts can strengthen disaster resilience.
Community land trusts aim to provide affordable housing on land they own and lease to homeowners. Removing the value of the land brings down the home price, and the homeowner agrees to sell the home at a restricted price to keep it affordable.
The Front Step Community Land Trust in Missoula, formerly known as the North Missoula Community Development Corporation, includes more than 80 permanently affordable homes, according to its website. Brittany Palmer, executive director of Front Step, said Lahaina is a potential future for Missoula and a reminder of the “importance of community-owned assets in the face of climate catastrophe.”
“The more community assets —whether it’s farms, housing, commercial buildings, sacred places — the more land that’s removed from the speculative market and held in trust on behalf of the community by organizations like Front Step CLT, the more resilient communities can be,” she said. “And that’s because we’re beholden to ourselves and not to speculative land grabs that we’re seeing can so often happen as a result of climate catastrophe.”
Ness said she helped start Lahaina Community Land Trust following the August 2023 wildfire that destroyed thousands of homes in the historic town on Maui’s northwest coast. Ness described the dry conditions in Lahaina as a result of “colonization and greed.”
“When we reclaim land and water, and when we steward them outside of capitalism, we can return them to economic principles that are also climate change solutions,” she said. “We cannot talk about climate resiliency unless we name, understand and seek to replace the systems that drive it. … In Lahaina, the systems that are driving climate change are colonization and extractive capitalism. And the CLT tool is what we’re using to fight against those forces.”
Before the fire, affordable homes were in short supply, with the housing market squeezed by vacation rentals, and the median home price greatly outpaced the per capita income, Ness said. The fire displaced 12,000 people and left many vulnerable to losing their property, she said. The Lahaina Community Land Trust has purchased properties for housing to be sold to Lahaina families at affordable prices and helped families retain their land by providing the necessary funds in exchange for adding a deed restriction that would keep the home affordable in the future, Ness said. If families couldn’t afford to rebuild, for most, their only option was to sell and move off the island, she said.
“When we talk about preventing a sale, we’re not just blocking an investor from scooping it,” Ness said. “It’s also preserving a way of life, a shared history, generational knowledge that is even more valuable as we rebuild Lahaina from the ground up.”
Following Ness’ presentation, Amber Khan, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington, discussed her research on the role of CLTs in building resilience to disasters. As part of her study with the International Center for Community Land Trusts, Khan interviewed 23 CLTs around the world, mainly in North America. Khan said CLTs support climate resilience because they provide permanent affordability, build community connectedness and support economic and social empowerment.
“Time and time again, research has shown that in disaster settings, knowing your neighbor is the number one predictor of better preparedness, response and recovery,” she said. “By building communal spaces and trust through social ties, CLT residents are better set out for helping each other out during a disaster.”
Front Step is interested in making future developments more energy efficient and retrofitting existing homes, but finding funding for the work is challenging, Palmer said. The organization held several neighborhood preparedness workshops this year, which included discussions on household safety plans, building phone trees and making introduction cards for neighbors.
“Our goal with that event series is to get neighbors across Missoula more in relationship to each other so that when and if the next windstorm or any kind of natural disaster sort of event happens again, people will know each other beforehand and be able to support each other beforehand and during,” Palmer said.
Since its founding in 1996, Front Step has consistently engaged in community organizing, hosted neighborhood events, led community-driven projects and advocated for affordable housing, Palmer said.
“When neighbors have strong relationships, they’re more resilient in the face of natural disasters,” she said. “And we have a lot of other organizations in town beginning and running really innovative programs on how to make our built environment and our natural landscape more resilient to wildfires. … The part of the ecosystem that Front Step can contribute to is getting folks in relationship to one another and strengthening community that way.”
The University of Montana recently received a three-year, $1.2 million federal grant to support youth behavioral health programs and career pathways in rural areas.
UM’s Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development was one of 12 awardees of the grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Pathways initiative, according to a UM press release.
Through the program, high school students in Livingston, Helena and Kalispell will train as community health workers, complete internships and have the opportunity to receive dual enrollment credit from colleges and universities.
“This grant represents a transformative opportunity for Montana’s youth and rural communities,” said Kate Chapin, executive director of the UM Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development, in a release. “By equipping high school students with the skills and credentials to become community health workers, we’re not only addressing a critical workforce shortage, we’re empowering young people to be part of the solution in their own communities. This initiative is about hope, healing and creating meaningful career pathways that begin in high school and lead to lifelong impact.”
Students will receive technical training and develop life and career skills, such as problem-solving, personal wellness and resilience, according to the release. A network of more than 30 industry associations, nonprofits, agencies and educational institutions will support the initiative.
The Missoula County Elections Office rejected nearly 160 ballots as of Tuesday because they didn’t include the voter’s signature and/or birth year, as required by a new state law. Most of the rejections, 114, were for a missing or incorrect birth year, said Bradley Seaman, the county’s elections administrator. The number of rejected ballots is more than 10 times the number of rejected ballots at this point in the September primary election before the new law went into effect, Seaman said. In 2023, 60 ballots were rejected throughout the entire election, he said. When a ballot is rejected, staff call or email the voter to resolve the issue, if they have provided their contact information. A letter is sent to each voter with a rejected ballot. Voters have until 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, to correct their ballot at the Elections Office, 140 N. Russell St. in Missoula. Voters can verify that their ballot has been accepted by visiting myvoterpagemt.com and clicking “Track my Ballot.” County election staff are receiving a high volume of calls about the new requirement but said the questions and comments are best directed to the Secretary of State’s office at [email protected] or 406-444-9608.
Missoula County mailed 2025 tax bills to property owners on Thursday. The bills are also available online. Tax payments for the first half of the year must be postmarked by Dec. 1 for property owners who don’t pay their taxes through their mortgage. Tax payments for the second half of the year are due June 1, 2026. Property owners can mail payments to the county Clerk and Treasurer’s Office, drop them off at the blue courthouse drop box in the west parking lot off Woody Street or pay online at missoulataxes.us. Fees apply when paying online by credit or debit card, but there is no fee for eCheck. More information on tax bills is available at missoula.co/propertytaxinfo.
The Missoula City Council on Monday approved an amendment to the plan for the Riverfront Trails Subdivision in the Miller Creek neighborhood, giving the developer more time to complete infrastructure work. The council initially approved the subdivision, which includes plans for single-family and multifamily homes, an assisted living facility, a religious assembly and a riverside park, in December 2022. The first phase was filed in 2024 and included parkland and the lot for a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple, said Tara Porcari, a city senior planner. The developer requested new deadlines of 2028 and 2030 for the next two phases, which include the bulk of the residential lots planned for the site. The city added new conditions of approval requiring the landowner to transfer water rights to the city and install necessary infrastructure as part of a development agreement to address water capacity issues, Porcari said.
Missoula County is seeking input from residents about the county’s advisory boards, committees and councils through a survey. There are currently 28 openings on the county’s 19 advisory boards/committees, seven community councils and 12 governing boards. The survey aims to understand why people choose to serve on or decline to serve on volunteer boards. The survey also asks about where the county can share information and get feedback on projects. The responses will help shape the county’s approach to board recruitment and address barriers to applying for and serving on boards. The survey is available online until Nov. 14. It takes about five to 10 minutes to complete and is anonymous.
The Missoula Police Department is accepting applications for the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Academy. The academy includes an overview of the police department’s activities, with a combination of classroom presentations and field demonstrations. Sessions will focus on uniform patrol, investigations, special teams, school resource officers, crime scene investigations, the K-9 program and community service specialists. The program begins on Jan. 14 and runs from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. every Wednesday until March 4, with a final session on Saturday, March 7. The application period will close on Dec. 11. Those interested can apply online.