Volunteers make the small unincorporated community of Big Sky what it is. Thousands of people have donated countless hours to help mold organizations and bolster efforts. Twenty Big Sky residents stepped up to interview for the vacant volunteer board positions with Big Sky Community Housing Trust (BSCHT).
At least an additional 90 rental units for Big Sky’s workforce may soon exist on Highway 64. Details are being hashed out between the nonprofit Big Sky Community Housing Trust (BSCHT) and Lone Mountain Land Company (LMLC) for a rental development that will also include dorm style units.
Boards of organizations in Big Sky make things happen – they wield a lot of power in the unincorporated community. Board members have the onus of furthering organizational goals while remaining accountable to the community.
When Laura Seyfang, executive director of Big Sky Community Housing Trust (BSCHT) stood before the speakers gathered for the Chamber of Commerce Building Forum there were five and a half rental units available in Big Sky and “112 people on our waitlist desperately looking for places to rent.” She noted that median real estate prices in the area
To deviate from all the recent doom and gloom, three Big Sky families will soon be able to move into spacious affordable housing.
Those families will be selected via a lottery system.
Laura Seyfang has always admired former President Jimmy Carter and his work with Habitat for Humanity. On 13 different missions, the former GM executive and Big Sky resident used vacation time to volunteer for Habitat projects around the world: Kenya, Nepal, Vietnam and Paraguay.
Greg Blaufuss is worried about his son Spencer, who lives in a 1984 Bluebird International bus near the corner of Gooch Hill Road and Highway 191 in Gallatin Gateway. A few weeks back, Spencer—who is 24 and works at Big Sky Resort—bought a load of green wood and that triggered an unfortunate cascade of events.
The federal HOME down payment assistance program is now available to homebuyers in Big Sky. It’s been helping turn renters into homeowners in Bozeman for several years, but only recently came available to buyers looking to purchase Big Sky properties at a capped amount of $272,000 or less.