NeighborWorks Awarded Tax Credits for Baatz Block Apartments

NeighborWorks Great Falls, in partnership with Homeword of Missoula were awarded Low Income Housing Tax Credits by the Montana Board of Housing on Monday, October 18th for the proposed Baatz Block Apartments. This project will redevelop the currently vacant and blighted, “Baatz Building” located at 400 2nd Ave South in Great Falls. The building will contain 25 apartments targeted towards individuals who have previously experienced homelessness. Residents of the apartments will pay rent, have a lease and have one on one support from a case manager to help build independent living and tenancy skills as well as be connected to community based physical and mental healthcare services. The first floor of the building will house both case management professionals as well as the community-based service providers.

The project is one of four awarded on Monday, out of the 13 housing developments across Montana originally proposed to the Board of Housing earlier this year. The competitive process awards a portion of the equity needed for a project based upon need, function, financial sustainability, and functionality as well as overall project characteristics.

Sherrie Arey, Executive Director of NeighborWorks Great Falls said, “The concept of bringing a project like this to Great Falls truly began in 2016 with the creation of the local Continuum of Care, a group of Great Falls organizations dedicated to the coordination of community-based healthcare services in order to address the needs of the chronically homeless. The Baatz Block development team is excited to continue this work forward and provide safe, stable homes for years to come with this project. We are so thankful for the outpouring of local support we received with our application and look forward to continuing to include the community in the next steps of this development.”

The Baatz Block Apartments are projected to be open and operational by spring of 2023.