About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


86 Mont. L. Rev. 1 (2025)

handle is hein.journals/montlr86 and id is 1 raw text is: Slanger: THE ROLE OF LAW THE ROLE OF LAW IN THE MAKING-AND UNMAKING-OF HOUSING POLICY Addie Slanger* I. INTRODUCTION This issue records the Montana Law Review's 2024 Hon. James R. Browning Symposium, Housing in Montana: Navigating the Crisis and Crafting Solutions. The topic is a pertinent one. For many years, the housing crisis has been a policy issue across the United States and in Montana, where prices have soared and competition for housing has risen dramatically.' Nationally, homelessness has reached its highest levels since the government began reporting data on the subject in 2007.2 Society must approach these problems with urgency and seek feasible, lasting solutions. Experts agree this crisis stems from layers of complicated, interlock- ing sources.3 Exclusionary zoning ordinances limit the availability-and viability-of affordable housing options,4 and municipalities reckon with the challenge of addressing homelessness, receiving constitutional scrutiny across the Ninth Circuit.' The crisis manifests differently on Native American reser- vations, where tribal policies, overcrowding, complicated financing processes, and a lack of access to capital compound, resulting in unique challenges.6 Each of the Symposium participants and scholars whose contributions appear in this issue works tirelessly to address these many challenges. Col- lectively, their observations provide a nuanced backdrop of the housing crisis by highlighting the work being done at the intersection of law and hous- ing policy, and suggest regulatory, statutory, and interpretive solutions for change. This Foreword considers the contributions of the Symposium partici- pants before making some concluding points. Part II addresses the keynote of * Addie Slanger, J.D. Candidate, Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana, Class of 2026. 1. David Erickson, Montana's Housing Market Listed as Least Affordable in Entire US, HELENA INDEP. REC. (Sept. 18, 2024), https://perma.cc/6Z9D-45A4. 2. Tanya de Sousa et al., The 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, U.S. DEP'T OF Hous. & URB. DEV., OFF. OF CMTY. PLAN. & DEV. 2-3 (Dec. 2023), https://perma.cc/ B67C-KFNC. 3. Jenny Schuetz, To Improve Housing Affordability, We Need Better Alignment of Zoning, Taxes, and Subsidies, BROOKINGS INST. (Jan. 7, 2020), https://perma.cc/2HWU-6CR9. 4. Note, Addressing Challenges to Affordable Housing in Land Use Law: Recognizing Affordable Housing as a Right, 135 HARV. L. REV. 1104, 1104-05 (2022). 5. See, e.g., Martin v. City of Boise, 920 F.3d 584 (9th Cir. 2019), abrogated by City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, 603 U.S. 520 (2024). 6. Brandon Bridge, Affordable Housing in Montana, UNIV. OF MONT. BUREAU OF Bus. & EcON. RSCH. 4 (Dec. 2020), https://perma.cc/6WF9-DA9F. Published by ScholarWorks at University of Montana, 2025