Secure housing is fundamental for Missoula families to thrive. I moved to Missoula in 2001 and housing costs were well on their way to outpacing wages.

Today, the gap between the average family’s income and housing costs is simply not sustainable. The people our community depends on – teachers, firefighters, police officers and nonprofit employees – can’t find and keep stable housing. Rent is high, renters aren’t often protected, and housing prices are unattainable. Addressing Missoula’s housing crisis requires the ability to be able to work with others on council and in our community to get things done.

LGBTQAI+ Allyship

As the mother of an LGBTQAI+ kid, the issue of queer visibility is always urgent for me. 

 Inclusion is important.

Queer visibility is life saving and out loud allyship is a requirement for those of us who sit at the tables of power. 

I brought and city council passed a resolution making the Pride flag an official flag of the city of Missoula because it was important to me that as a city we take stand against a state bill that targeted my kid and many others like her.  

The implementation of Our Missoula, the city’s new development code, has the potential to be a gamechanger when it comes to leveling the playing field for Missoula’s neighborhoods. Some parts of town have taken on extensive growth without the infrastructure to support that growth. I’ve been a strong voice for the people in these neighborhoods that tend to be traditionally working class, already dense and often they have old and sometimes failing infrastructure. Missoula’s building codes, like many in municipalities across the country, proved to be historically racist and classist. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to untangle the reasons why and build a more equitable code.

There have been successes, failures and a lot of lessons learned the past five years when it comes to houselessness.

 We are still seeing the ripple effects of Montana legislature cutting critical services for case management across the state as more people are living with untreated mental illness, substance abuse disorder and are generally just falling through deep societal cracks.

As a young parent, I was faced with the choice of staying home to care for my young children or spend every dollar I made on childcare. It was, frankly, cheaper for me stay home and I did for nearly three years. During that time, we lived paycheck to paycheck. We sometimes relied on SNAP, WIC and Healthy Montana Kids to provide for our young family.

I get it.

Climate change

As the chair of the climate, conservation and parks committee chair on city council I get to work closely with the city’s climate team. Their work is inspiring. Currently, they continue to work toward a green power program with Northwestern Energy and the cities of Bozeman and Helena. This work has been ongoing for several years and we continue to move forward with this program.