Amid the US’s second-worst price spikes and shortage of homes, a broad coalition unified to find solutions.

In the last three weeks, Montana rocketed through a housing agenda that would give most US states a nosebleed.

Duplexes: legal. Backyard cottages: legal. Discretionary design review: ended. Residential parking: optional after the first space. Commercial zones: they're also apartment zones now.

How'd it happen? A bipartisan coalition united around a simple idea: when in a housing shortage, let cities build like they used to.

A series of housing supply bills, expected to be signed by Governor Greg Gianforte, would restore the ability to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and duplexes in cities across Montana as well as permit multifamily housing in commercial zones. Other bills shielded new housing from “not in my backyard" challenges and delays. All these bills gained wide bipartisan support in the Republican supermajority legislature.

Combined, the adopted policies will change how Montana grows for decades to come. Currently 70 percent of residential land prohibits or penalizes multifamily dwellings in Montana’s 13 most populous cities. These exclusionary zoning laws were commonly adopted during the last century, restricting less expensive types of homes like middle housing and ADUs, and pushing new construction to the outskirts of cities---to sprawl.

It wasn’t always that way. Senator Greg Hertz (R) recounted that there used to be more housing types when he was growing up, from apartments above the garage to triplexes.

“It was all over the place,”

he said.

“We don’t have that anymore. Local governments zoned all that out.”

Regulatory reform efforts have most commonly been fought in blue states with rapidly growing metro areas. But Montana is showing that, when a housing crisis looms and affects community members of all political stripes, victories can come from anywhere.

BILLS THAT DIED IN 2021 CAME BACK, WITH MORE FRIENDS AND HIGHER STAKES

2023 had already been such a success for housing reform in Montana that when CityLab’s How YIMBYs Won Montana was published at the end of April and two major housing supply bills had run into hurdles, the writer still dubbed the state’s overall pro-housing policy successes a “Montana miracle.” By now, even those two bills have sailed through the legislature. A miracle indeed. But it took both an intensified crisis of affordability and a careful cross-partisan collaboration.

This is a 180-degree turn from the last legislative session in 2021, when these same ideas quickly were shot down. Just two short years ago, bills to allow ADUs and middle housing options never made it out of their first committees.

What changed? First, the housing crisis in Montana has soared to new heights. In the past five years the average home price in the state has nearly doubled, increasing from about $239,000 in 2018 to $428,000 today, according to Zillow. That is the second highest price spike in the United States, after neighboring Idaho. The state legislature in Montana only meets every other year, adding to the pressure for action to head off the affordability crisis.

“We can’t afford to wait any longer,”

Sen. Hertz testified on the ADU bill he brought back after failing to get support 2021. But this year, the same committee that had killed the bill voted 7-2 in support.

Another shift: a well-organized set of stakeholders respected by both parties. The driving force behind the year of housing was a strong bipartisan coalition of advocates, first convened by the Governor on a housing task force. Hertz had served on it, as well as pro-housing Missoula Democrat Danny Tenenbaum. Nonprofit organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Shelter Whitefish sat next to free-market driven think tanks like the Frontier Institute and Mercatus Center. A few months before the 2023 legislative session started, the unlikely bedfellows published a report recommending regulatory changes to boost housing affordability...