Great Falls Opens Review of Draft 2026 Housing Funding Plan

The City of Great Falls released its draft 2026 Annual Action Plan on Aug. 5, opening a public-review period for the city’s proposed use of certain federal housing and community-development funds.

The plan sets out the city’s intended priorities for the 2026 annual action-plan cycle. It is a draft, not a final spending decision, and the city is asking residents, service providers and community organizations to review it and provide input before the plan advances.

What the draft plan does

Annual action plans are used to explain how a city intends to use federal housing and community-development funding during the next program year. In Great Falls, the draft document is intended to give the public a look at the proposed local priorities for those dollars.

That makes the release relevant beyond the city’s Planning and Community Development Department. The proposed priorities can affect the direction of local housing and community-development work, although the announcement does not identify a specific neighborhood, project or recipient that will receive funding.

The city has not stated the total amount of federal funding involved in the announcement. The available information also does not identify specific allocation amounts, so the release should not be read as an announcement of approved spending.

Public input is the next step

The City of Great Falls made the draft available through its plans, amendments and reports page. That gives residents and local organizations a direct opportunity to examine the proposal before the city moves forward with the annual plan.

For people focused on housing, neighborhood needs or community services, the review period is the point at which concerns and priorities can be raised while the plan remains a draft. Service providers and neighborhood groups may also use the process to identify needs they believe should be reflected in the city’s proposed use of federal funds.

The city’s announcement does not provide a public-comment deadline or a final adoption date. Those dates are important next details for anyone who wants to participate, and they were not included in the approved information about the release.

Why the timing matters

The Aug. 5 release begins the public-facing stage of the 2026 planning cycle. It does not establish that money has already been awarded or that any particular project will proceed.

Instead, the document gives Great Falls residents a chance to review the city’s proposed approach to federal housing and community-development dollars before the plan advances. The eventual local impact will depend on the priorities and allocations contained in the draft and on the city’s later action.

For now, the confirmed change is that the draft plan is available for review and that the city is seeking public input. The funding total, detailed allocation tables, comment deadline and final adoption date remain unspecified in the announcement released by the city.