ZAHP! The Zootown Affordable Housing Podcast

Kirsten Matteson has a PHD in structural mechanics. Currently an assistant professor in the department of Civil Engineering at Montana State University in Bozeman, Kirsten is especially interested in materials with potential for positive global change. Among other projects, she has worked together with MSU students to do research on hempcrete as a novel material, looking at its use in structural engineering applications. Kirsten worked on this project in conjunction with Kirby Hancock (listen to S2/E3 of ZAHP) with partial funding from the Montana Farmer’s Union, experimenting with different mixes and incorporating cement to see what yielded the best results in optimizing the strength of hempcrete as a building material. To hear the results and find out more, listen to our interview!

This episode is an interview with Heather Harp, Missoula City Council member and also Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity in Missoula. Habitat for Humanity is a nationwide organization that enables income qualifying families to better afford a new home by contributing 200 hours of their own sweat equity to the process of building it. Heather has some much needed, ambitious goals for Habitat home building in 2021, listen to our conversation to find out more!

Jason Gutzmer is a local builder who constructed an annualized geo-solar home he calls ‘El Nido Solar’ (the Solar Nest), off an alley in the middle of Missoula. He is also a local educator and visual artist/filmmaker/anthropologist with a background spanning 20 years in permaculture design practice across 14 countries. Some projects he has worked on include taking a mobile eco village throughout Latin America, creating an eco village in Montana and working as a green educator in Indonesia. The Solar Nest blends many ways of harvesting the sun's heat, including the geo-solar system designed by Jason.  Wondering what a geo-solar home is? Listen to find out.

In the course of making ZAHP! And also starting my own project, MAP, I have spent a good deal of time investigating viable options for alternative building materials. My favorite one thus far is hempcrete, and for this reason I reached out to Kirby Hancock. Kirby is an architect working with Think Tank Architects of Bozeman, and is also the founder of a company called Transformative Ecologies. Recently Kirby collaborated with the Montana Farmer’s Union and MSU to experiment with Hempcrete, which is what drew me to seek out an interview with him. Hempcrete is a mix of hemp stalks and lime that can be used as a building material. In this conversation we talk about some barriers to the use of hemp building products in our state, from lack of processing facilities to lack of sufficient testing and conventional use. We also cover a few other bonus topics so if you’re interested in alternative materials, don’t miss this interview!

https://www.transformativeecologies.com/

Dear Listeners,

I hold close to heart the notion that truly affordable/sustainable living is tied into local, regenerative food production.  Paul Wheaton is a widely known permaculture gardener, podcaster, writer, experimenter, and information spreader.  He has authored a book titled:  Building a Better World in Your Backyard - Instead of Being Angry at Badguys.  He is also over 500 episodes into his podcast, called Homesteading and Permaculture, and you can find all the information you desire about Paul Wheaton and his work by visiting his website, permies.com.  Paul owns land outside Missoula area where he conducts experiments with net zero living and ways to do things differently from the conventional norm.  He hosts a variety of learning opportunities on his land that are both short term and/or long term in nature.  Some folks have visited him to learn more and ended up staying to pursue their own adventures/experimentation with growing food sustainably and living more in harmony on the land with Mother Nature.    Paul has been pursuing his passion for permaculture for 20 years now, and we are extremely fortunate in Missoula to have such an amazing resource living so close to our town.  

Dearest ZAHP! listeners,

With Corona Virus showing no signs of abating around the world and the US elections just around the corner, I decided it would be a good time to start a new season of ZAHP!  After 20 episodes in Season 1, I look forward to a second season filled with a bunch more timely, information filled and pertinent interviews!  You probably won't be surprised to find out that as people deal with the effects of unemployment or inability to work due to Corona Virus, home prices in our town have been rising even faster than before.  To get a look at how Corona Virus has been affecting our housing market, I got in touch with local realtor Jason Baker, of the Jason Baker Team at Rise Realty.  Jason was very kind to sit down and have a conversation with me about the latest numbers, what they mean, and how Covid has been causing housing prices to go up.  I am so grateful to be kicking off Season 2 with this information packed interview.  As always, if you have any questions you can always send me a message from the ZAHP! page at Anchor.fm.  For more information on Jason Baker and his team, visit http://www.jasonbakerteam.com/, and as always, thank you so much for listening to ZAHP!

In this interview, Dallas Cowboys fan Henry King was kind enough to walk me through his nearly finished, thoughtfully converted bus, soon to be home. Henry takes the time to show me every inch of his intelligently utilized space, with hidden storage, an incredible sound system, flight simulator, tub, washer and dryer, queen sized bed… everything he needs and wants in his space to feel at home. He has been working on his bus and gathering the different parts for years, and the final layout looks nicely suited to meet all the needs of a dedicated, creative bachelor who is just about to move into his free wheeling, long term living space. For a visual of Henry's bus, check back for a youtube link to video footage of Henry's bus, taken by Tahj Kjelland, coming soon!

Episode 19 of ZAHP is an interview with John Porterfield. He is part owner of Montana Grow, which creates a MT sourced, silicon based crop supplement called Ignimbrite, and you can find out more at ignimbrite.com. John has grown hemp in the past and contributed materials to different hemp related projects, including the work of Frances de Forrest and my own project, MAP, the Montana Attainability Project, to which he donated a hefty pile of hemp stalks and the use of his wood chipper so that I could get started experimenting with Hempcrete. Currently he is developing the use of hemp fiber and wool in Montana at his textile manufacturing mill in Malta, MT, where these miracle fibers are blended into very soft, high quality pillows and duvets. For more information visit www.woolenhemp.com. He is also part owner of Wildhorse Hot Springs, and among other things, we talk about John’s ideas for harnessing their healing waters for heat and food growth.

This is an interview with Dave Glaser, President of Mofi, Julie Lapham, Mortgage Banker at Mann Mortgage, and Bre Smith, a homebuyer whose growing family has used Mofi's downpayment assistance program to purchase a home 3 times! If you have a credit score of 640 or higher and your income qualifies (below a certain range) you may very well be eligible to purchase a home with downpayment assistance.  This interview is full of information but if you need more, go straight to Mofi.org!  Thank you for listening to ZAHP!  It is now produced fully by me, Rebecca Kelley, and I look forward to now being able to promptly bring many more pertinent interviews on the subject of affordable housing to your ears.  Thank you also for your interview referrals, they are much appreciated!

John Runningbear has an engineering background and has been living in and working on converted busses for 30 years. He currently resides with his wife and 3 large dogs in their tri-level bus just outside Missoula while running his RV repair business, Big Dog RV Services. He has started 2 intentional communities in Wyoming and Arizona and is working on getting a 3rd going in the Missoula area. This is a 2 part interview in which we meet Nicole, a nursing student who John has helped convert her own bus just this past winter. Then we get a look inside John’s own bus, which is an ongoing experiment with functioning off grid systems that John has been refining since he started living in busses 30 years ago.  Thank you for your patience as ZAHP! experiences some delays due to Covid and my recent move to Hot Springs, MT. Fortunately things have settled and I look forward to bringing more of my recent interviews to your ears promptly. Rest assured that ZAHP! is going strong! In the meantime, stay well and thank you for listening and for your interest in examining creative solutions to the issue of affordable housing!

Find out more about John Runningbear and his RV Repair Business, Big Dog RV Services at:

https://www.bigdogrvservices.com/