With housing tight, RVs become permanent homes in Bozeman

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — Finding a place to live in Gallatin County is a fraught task.

New rentals are few and far between. Homes for sale seem even fewer and farther with skyrocketing demand and a diminishing housing supply.

The market has pushed some, and pulled others, to give up living in a stationary home — at least for a while — in exchange for becoming full-time residents of their RVs, campers or trailers.

As a result, small cities of all varieties of motor homes have popped up in local campgrounds, big-box store parking lots and side streets.

It’s a result of the pandemic and is new to Bozeman, but the city’s not alone. There’s been a rise in people living in vehicles across the country, Human Resources Development Council CEO Heather Grenier told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

But in a county where rent is spiking by hundreds of dollars a month for some and the median price of single-family homes doubled in the last year, it’s another sign of a worsening housing crisis.

“It really was just a direct correlation to the housing market … so many people were displaced as a result of COVID, people sold their homes that were long-term rentals, people switched to VRBO rather than long-term rentals because they could,” Grenier said.

“So many people were displaced and we already had a really limited inventory and housing supply, so we weren’t just able to absorb it.”

The rise prompted HRDC to work with the Bozeman Police Department and the Downtown Bozeman Partnership on an outreach program aimed at those living on the streets.

A Bozeman community resources officer goes out with an HRDC staff member to check in with people and offer them any resources they may need, whether that’s some cash to fix something on their vehicle or connecting them to a housing resources...