The city of Missoula, along with Bergquist Development LLC and North Missoula Community Development Corporation worked together to put together the first income-qualified homes in Missoula.

The homes are one-bedroom condos set aside for purchase by those earning up to $68,640 a year.

In total, eight new homes were built, and to ensure equality, all applicants were entered into a lottery system and chosen at random to see who will be able to purchase one.

“In the broad scheme of things, we have several hundred units of affordable housing that are coming online this year, and those are the results of, you know, those are coming in in bits and pieces, I mean, it's eight here, it's small amounts here and there, and eight becomes 16, becomes, you know, 100, 200 and 1,000, and before you know it, it's a meaningful part of our housing stock,” Missoula Mayor Jordan Hess said.

The homes are use-restricted, so they will need to be used as primary residences and will need to be sold to income-qualified buyers in the future.

Hess says this experience taught the city a lot, and they hope to implement a similar process for developments in the future.