Story by Lydia Mattern | Photos by Abigail Stenkamp

Sitting in the cluttered office that he shares with two other employees, Steven Morigeau recalled his journey from struggling with addiction at 19-years-old. Now he is employed, working a job that he’s passionate about and helping people who had similar journeys.

Morigeau, the residential director of Never Alone Support Services, a tribal program that offers housing for newly sober residents living on the Flathead Indian Reservation, has a poster hanging near his office door dedicated to his sister. She lost her life to addiction a few years ago. A different wall has a wooden sign behind his worn chair reads “No fear.” Morigeau’s love for his job comes directly from his personal experience.

“I’m really just here doing what I can,” Morigeau said. “This is what I enjoy doing every day. When people get burnt out doing this, they get burnt out because it’s a job to them. To me, I enjoy coming here. It’s what I love and I love helping people.”

With some of the highest housing costs in the state, the reservation has become one of the most expensive places to buy a home in Montana. While the area has historically been expensive, it has only gotten more precarious as time goes on.

Last year, the Federal Department of Government Efficiency under President Donald Trump attempted to quickly reduce government spending and cut hundreds of employees from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition, Trump attempted to cut Native American housing program funding, although that failed. Still, the moves have led to widespread anxiety and unease among citizens of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes living on the reservation.

“When funding is disrupted, it has a huge ripple effect. We are okay financially, but most tribal housing authorities are not okay,” said Jody Cahoon Perez, executive director of the Salish and Kootenai Tribal Housing Authority. “Other housing authorities in Montana were making drastic changes because of just freezing [funding] for a few days. We have longer-term goals to meet, and I’m nervous about if our funding is going to be there.”

The Flathead reservation, first recognized in 1855, is home to three tribes: the Bitterroot Salish, Upper Pend d’Oreille and Kootenai tribes. The reservation is home to about 29,000 people. Stretching across 1.3 million acres, the reservation covers a diverse terrain. Grassy and wooded hills sit nestled under the rugged Mission Mountains to the east. With the Flathead River flowing throughout, the valley is picture perfect to Montana life. It’s what people who aren’t from Montana envision life here to be like.

According to the Census Reporter, the average home value on the reservation is $528,940 compared to the average Montana home value of $455,364. Still, the average household income on the Flathead reservation is $80,097, which is almost $20,000 below the state average of $98,908.

The lack of affordable housing on the reservation isn’t an isolated issue. According to a study published by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, about 32% of Native households living on tribal land are considered impoverished, compared to about 18% nationwide.

Owning a home has long been sold as the American dream, but it is out of reach for many Indigenous people. The housing market was designed as unattainable from its foundations, Cahoon Perez said.

“Our housing problems are pretty much all the same because we were all disrupted from our way of life when European contact was made,” she said. “We are all dealing with the same effects, because we all share the same story.”

The housing authority receives funding for its building projects from the Indian Housing Block Grant, a subsection of the Native American Housing and Self Determination Act.

The organization’s most recent project is a low-income reunification apartment complex, which Cahoon Perez hopes will be ready for move-in by July. The building will have 12 available apartments and is one of several affordable housing complexes the housing authority has worked on over the past few years.

Based in Pablo, the complex was designed for parents who are reuniting with their child after intervention by child protective services. It offers the families a chance to reconnect in a safe and affordable environment.

It’s important to Cahoon Perez that Native children stay connected to their heritage, and she believes that providing parents with a safe place to live and support their children can help families stay together. The complex is specifically designed to accommodate child protective service visits.

“Who knows why [families] were taken apart,” Cahoon Perez said. “There’s a lot of reasons. Now that they’re in a better space, they can get reunited,”

According to Cahoon Perez, the amount of control the federal government has over the reservation is concerning to many tribal citizens. Many programs, including the housing authority, rely on federal funding and grants that could be pulled at any time.

Under the Land Allotment Act of 1904, all tribal members living on the Flathead reservation at that time were allotted a parcel of land. Everything left over was taken by the U.S. government and sold to the highest bidder. Today, the Flathead reservation is considered a checkerboard reservation because its land is split between reservation trust land and privately-owned land, creating a checkerboard pattern on the map.

Because of this, building new homes or apartments on a checkerboard reservation is difficult and expensive, with different regulations and standards applied across the borders.

Allotted land is also referred to as trust land, and the housing market for this type of land is completely separate from reservation land. There are two categories of trust land: Land that’s owned by individuals and land that’s owned by the tribes. Either way, owning a home on a reservation makes it difficult to build equity.

Bradley Trosper, a retired soil scientist born on the Flathead reservation, owns a piece of trust land that was allotted to his family in the early 1900s. He inherited the land from his father and plans to pass it down to his son.

“There’s some advantages to owning trust land and some disadvantages,” Trosper said. “One of the disadvantages is if you want to convey it to somebody else, you want to sell it, you would have to sell it to somebody who’s eligible to own trust land. It’s a very restricted market.”

Anyone who wants to buy trust land on the Flathead reservation must be an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The tribe itself could also purchase trust land.

Trosper moved back to the Flathead reservation in 1983 after serving in the Navy. While he didn’t personally struggle to find housing at the time, Trosper said he noticed housing prices on the Flathead reservation rising over the last several years.

Specifically, Trosper noticed a jump in housing prices in 2020, the year many people migrated from urban centers to more rural areas throughout the United States. The population in Montana grew by about 53,000 people from 2020-24, according to U.S. Census estimates.  

 “It’s a balloon. I expect it to pop,” Trosper said about the current state of the economy. In fact, the U.S. Census estimates that the Montana population increased by nearly 7,500 people from 2024-25, the lowest rate of year-to-year growth since the pandemic. 

The natural beauty of the Flathead reservation makes the land highly desirable to a wider non-native population. Trosper believes this desirability has contributed to the housing shortages on the reservation.

“Nobody’s racing to move to Clancy, Montana, or Great Falls. They want to live in the Flathead area,” Trosper said.

Never Alone Recovery Support Services is not just dedicated to offering sober living options, but also affordable living options. The program, which is entirely peer-led, has three complexes, including the recovery village, which is specifically set up to rehabilitate low-income tribal citizens, and a non-tribal affiliated men’s and women’s home.

The recovery program was created in 2019 and receives funding for its complexes from the Salish and Kootenai Housing Authority, as well as a few private donors. The Residential  Director, Steven Morigeau, went through the program himself, lived in a low-income apartment for years, and has dedicated his career to the residents of the recovery village, men’s and women’s homes.

He spends his days reviewing tenant applications and driving residents wherever they need to go.

One resident, Tara Edner, moved into the women’s home, a small white house overlooking Flathead Lake, nine months ago. Originally from Iowa, Edner moved to the Flathead reservation to attend Salish Kootenai College. She is currently the longest-residing tenant.

“I like the [recovery program] hub and I really like the community idea of it,” Edner said. “The idea of having friends and family.”

Edner’s favorite part of living in the women’s home, however, is having her own room. It’s located on the first floor, decorated with various items that convey her personality. A few antique dolls are set up on the dresser along with a French press and a white bison skull.

The women’s home currently houses four residents, as does the men’s home, which is located about a five-minute drive away.

 The main building, or the hub, associated with Never Alone Recovery Support Services is just a few steps away from the recovery village itself. It is constantly bustling with activity and is almost always stocked with food. It’s become a safe space for tenants at the recovery village, community members and children without an after-school program to attend. 

“We can get food twice a month, and it’s a big load. We bring it here and it’s gone in like two days,” Morigeau said. “We open it up, not just to our tenants, but to the community. Anyone can come here and grab what they want.”

Inside the main building, a large couch filled the living room, and four or five recovery village tenants were spread across it, talking and laughing. Another few people stood around the kitchen table, engrossed in conversation. A small brown and white dog wove in and out of their legs.

Before he got a job there, Morigeau was already spending most days hanging around the recovery program headquarters. He said the program offered something he couldn’t find anywhere else; a supportive sober community. When he was offered a full-time position he jumped at it, excited to be a part of the program that helped him when he needed it most.

However, Morigeau has found sustaining an affordable home to be difficult. While he enjoyed pouring himself into the work and residents, his fulltime salary, along with his wife’s salary as a nurse, meant Morigeau and his family no longer qualified for low-income housing.

“We started making more and more money and eventually we’re hitting a spot where we’re making too much money to stay where we’re at,” Morigeau said.

In 2025, Morigeau, along with his wife and daughter, applied for a $15,000 housing grant from the Salish and Kootenai Housing Authority’s solidarity program. Two days after submitting an application, Morigeau and his family were approved and moved from the low-income unit where they had previously been living into their new home, conveniently located in the same area as the recovery program hub.

Seven days a week, Morigeau walks approximately 20 feet from his home to the recovery program hub to work. One sunny afternoon in April, Morigeau, clad in a black sweatshirt with the recovery village’s name emblazoned on the front, made his usual commute to his office. As he walked, it was clear how deeply invested he was in his work. He waved at each resident he passed and they waved back.

“I love you,” he called to each one, a wide smile lighting up his face.

Adrian Stasso moved into the recovery village about two weeks ago and found the community of residents welcoming and supportive. Stasso said joining the recovery program and living in a sober community has opened doors for him, including the opportunity to reconnect with his 14-year-old son.

“Since I’ve been here my walls are truly going down. I’m working on myself and I’m starting to find myself a bit better,” Stasso said.

He lives with two roommates in a unit adjacent to the hub.

Programs like the recovery village are exactly what Cahoon Perez, with the housing authority, believes the reservation needs most. She is determined to implement more programs that support tenants who are struggling with addiction or mental health struggles.

Cahoon Perez also hopes to create more affordable housing opportunities for those making too much to fit into the low-income category.

“The [housing authority] has been funneling everyone through low-income housing when really they need support services. So my goal has been to create these opportunities,” Cahoon Perez said.

She believes the conversation around affordable housing often overlooks a key demographic living on the reservation. The demographic of individuals, like Morigeau, who make just over 80% of the median income, which disqualifies them from low-income rent or benefits.

Cahoon Perez also mentioned another often-overlooked issue in the housing conversation: homelessness. In reservation communities, homelessness typically shows up in a different, less visible way. She estimates that just over 800 tribally affiliated citizens living on the Flathead reservation are currently experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. Of these individuals, almost half are living doubled up with someone else.

“Homelessness on the reservation looks way different than it looks in Missoula,” Cahoon Perez said. “In Missoula, you can see people who are living in places they’re not supposed to. Here we let them live with us. We have families with multiple generations [living together].”

Cahoon Perez said she regularly lets friends and family live with her when they are between homes. “We just let people live with us until they find something else,” she said.

According to a study published by the Salish and Kootenai Housing Authority, about 10% of households on the Flathead reservation experience overcrowding, compared to 1.9% in the rest of the state.

The housing authority charges rent for low-income housing units at 30% of the tenant’s salary. Rent for all apartments and houses is capped at $200. 

Since 1963, the housing authority has built more than 500 apartment units and homes on the Flathead reservation. It’s also made programs like Never Alone Recovery Support Services possible.

Cahoon Perez estimates that another 2,400 apartment units and houses are needed before the reservation’s housing needs are fully accommodated. About 1,300 of those apartments and houses are needed specifically for tribal citizens living on the reservation.

“Housing is the foundation of everyone’s lives, and that’s why it’s so special,” Cahoon Perez said. “That’s where your safe space is, and everyone should have safe space.”

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A SPECIAL PROJECT BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

ADDITIONAL FUNDING SUPPORT FROM THE GREATER MONTANA FOUNDATION

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