Emily Armstrong and Jesse Jaeger and Jill Bonny from the Poverello Center offered a presentation regarding the Emergency Winter Shelter. Please see attached presentation for more details.
Gwen Jones - A privacy fence has gone up around the property, in addition to a security plan being put in place.
Julie Merritt - Made the motion. Thanks to all for their hard work. This has been an ongoing effort for quite some time. This is a difficult situation, but it saves lives and we need to protect these people in our community.
John Contos - How did the neighborhood respond? How were they contacted and did they have any concerns?
Emily Armstrong - We have reached out in quite a few ways; a mailer was sent out with contact information for them to reach to, organizing stakeholder meetings to make sure we have direct communication with and we will be hosting an open house on October 28th.
John Contos - What were the main concerns?
Jesse Jaeger - I have been in many of those meetings. In general, they were supportive and appreciated the changes we are making with security, etc. We live in a very generous community who want to support their vulnerable neighbors. We try to very honest with everyone regarding our proactive measures and societal issues we all face.
Takami Clark - We called and emailed people. Many people did not want to meet. They knew how it went last year and know where to reach out, should problems arise. We are still waiting on responses from some. Security is one of the main concerns so with hiring security, that will be helpful.
Sandra Vasecka - Will security be 24/7?
Emily Armstrong - This is still in discussions.
Sandra Vasecka - There was drugs, needles in MRL Park, defecating in yards; there are now other options with the TOS and Meadowlark. I cannot support this motion.
Bryan von Lossberg - The Human Resource Council is contributing?
Emily Armstrong - Yes, $205,000.
Julie Merritt - I also received concerns of the same nature. I connected those people with the Quality of Life officer and the Pov and they were reached out to immediately. With our efforts for security, etc., there will still be some problems. We still need a place for people and this is the best place that has been identified. The TOS is full and the Meadowlark is also full and we still have families living in their cars. So, in my opinion, not having this open is not an option.
Stacie - I want to echo Ms. Merritt's comments. I know this is not ideal, but we need to be thinking of creative solutions. When the Bellagio and Trinity complex opens, these are coming on line. We wish we could have these all open immediately, but they are coming as quickly as they can. In the meantime, we need to keep people safe. Hopefully some of the measures being put in place will address some of the concerns people have.
Public comment was called for.
Bob Campbell offered public comment. I appreciate the question from Mr. Contos. With all due respect to Ms. Vasecka, he addressed this to Pov staff. But I was disappointed they never did really answer the question themselves. With the security being put in place, there is not going to be a lot of details about this. How much authority will the security have? I don't think we have received good answers to any of these questions.
Bryan von Lossberg - I think it is worth remembering that the emergency winter shelter has been a process over many years now. Everyone pitched in prior to having this. The point is to keep people alive. It is important to me that we strive to improve every year. Every year there have been problems and I have spent so much time, pretty much the entirety of my time on Council, answering emails, walking neighborhoods. It is a difficult problem and a few people can put a negative light on an effort demanded by our sense of human decency and keeping people safe. I am appreciative that people have tried to lean in on this and make each year better and being honest about the situation, good and bad, but we have tried to make change every year and we have. It comes down to a contrast in values. I will be supporting and appreciate the work on this.
Gwen Jones - I agree. These are hard, heavy lifts. This is a hard project. It is hard on the community, the people who need the help, the people who run the center. I feel Missoula does a good job in addressing it the best we can. I feel if we don't have this, we will have people staying in encampments and that is a more difficult situation. The Pov had to cut capacity in half due to Covid and CDC guidelines. There is clearly a need to fill that void. Meadowlark and the TOS are full. I know this is hard on the neighborhood and that is why we are taking the precautions we can for the neighborhood.
Vote was taken.
This will be put onto Committee Reports