State Legislature 2022: Jenna Martin

I am one of the candidates who never aspired to a political career. My background is in mental health and housing, and I spent years trying to fix issues through other means; I wrote the letters, I signed the petitions, I called my representatives and attended public forums and town halls. Not only have things not gotten better for my community, but they have gotten actively worse. I have watched self-serving politicians reverse decades of progress for the benefit of their own pockets. I’m running to bring these matters directly to Helena.

1.) Affordable Housing

2.) Affordable Childcare

3.) Fully-Funded Mental Health Programs.

I worked at the Psych Center here in town for years, as well as volunteered at the Crisis Center and the HUB (when it was still open). I have watched first hand as people are continuously tossed to the side due to an impossible-to-navigate mental health system.

All of these issues – affordable housing, affordable childcare and fully-funded mental health programs – are intertwined, and our community is desperately suffering due to the lack of comprehensive solutions for any of these issues.

One of these potential solutions is a universal housing program. This could be funded by taxing out-of-state corporations on the houses they are buying up in Montana.

Universal housing solves a multitude of issues: it lowers crime, addiction rates, overdose and suicide rates, homelessness, and unemployment (an address is needed for a bank account, and most jobs won’t let you apply without an option for direct deposit). It lowers shelter and crisis center occupancy and lowers the rate of re-admission for mental health crises (an address allows your medications to be sent to you by mail). It also saves the city money in multiple areas.

Local businesses have been complaining for years about our chronically houseless population, and the state has yet to offer a solution other than criminalizing these citizens and shifting them through various shelters, hospitals, and detention facilities, a strategy that is embarrassingly futile. A universal basic housing program solves this entire issue for local businesses. In addition, to help ease our labor problem, we need affordable childcare. Childcare is unbelievably unaffordable, with most of the increase coming after COVID. I am one of the parents who had to drop from the workforce and stay home with my kids full time, because the cost of childcare quickly moved from “expensive” to triple the cost of my mortgage. Without childcare, parents cannot work. If we want a thriving economy in Yellowstone County, we have to give parents the resources they need to get back to work and support their families, and if businesses are already struggling, it’s our responsibility at the state level to provide these programs.

I think this is a far more complicated issue that requires more than an all or nothing answer. Human rights issues, like the fact that businesses are not allowed to discriminate based on sexual identity or religion need to be taken care of at the state level. Environmental issues, like water standards, should also be taken care of at the state level. Local governments should be able to strengthen these standards, but never weaken them. There needs to be a baseline.

I believe issues that are local, such as the budget for snow-plowing in the winter should remain within local control.

As I mentioned in my earlier question, a universal basic housing program solves a large portion of these issues. It gets people off the street, it lowers crime and keeps people out of our jails, sober living houses and criminal justice system. This has been proven in multiple cities in multiple states.

In addition, fully-funded mental health programs would allow many of our citizens who often end up in the criminal justice system to be treated rather than arrested, released, and left to repeat the same cycle. Continuously throwing money at one side of the issue hasn’t worked for years. We need to fund systems that keep people from entering these cycles in the first place.

First, we can listen to scientists and take advantage of the already expansive opportunity to increase our renewable energy lineup. Montana is ranked 24th in the nation for wind energy while also being ranked 5th for estimated potential. We are simply not taking advantage of our potential. Someone in our legislature needs to grow a backbone, stop taking money from fossil fuels and put forth genuine legislation that moves forward on more wind, solar and hydro projects.

Second, we can stop giving subsidies to fossil fuel industries AND tax them at higher rates. We can use that money instead for employee retraining or even compensation for early retirement, should employees of a certain age choose that option.

These funds can also be used for clean energy infrastructure and additional public programs (like comprehensive public transportation programs) that ease the burden of a transition even more.

No, it should not be returned to the areas that generated the revenue, it should continue to be used statewide.

I do not think a local option sales tax targeted at tourists is our best option. I would prefer to tax out of state corporations taking advantage of our housing market. These companies make profits in the billions. They can more than afford it.

I’d also like to mention that a tax targeted at tourists promotes the idea that only those with higher incomes would be able to visit. That’s not who we are. Our state should be open to all who wish to see the Great American West, not just those with the extra pocket change. And even though a tax of this kind seems like a small, barely noticeable amount, as someone currently living below the poverty line, I can assure you any amount is noticeable.

What a great question! As I’ve already mentioned, we can keep throwing money at the edges of the problem, but a universal basic housing program can be funded, can be built and would solve far more of the problems than any other option discussed in our legislation.

New housing technologies are great and should definitely be explored, but we can already solve this problem with our current technology, we just need to do it.

I don’t believe “incentivizing” businesses is a fast enough solution to this problem. I believe as a state, we need to pass legislation for new housing and hire companies to build it, period, not cross our fingers and hope whatever legislation we write is tempting enough for companies to magically solve the problem on their own. We simply do not have time for trial and error. We are in a crisis and we should act accordingly. The state has the ability to solve this problem directly and should immediately do so.