MISSOULA – Missoula’s Salvation Army is currently in the process of trying to open its doors as a warming shelter to Missoula’s homeless population.
They recently received some good news that might expedite their process.
On the day after Thanksgiving, the Missoula City Council held a special vote to approve the Salvation Army as a temporary warming shelter.
But before they could open their doors as a potentially life-saving resource, they needed to raise all of the $50,000 it would require to run the shelter. Until now.
“We actually just received permission to open without the full funding and that just happened so now the wheels are turning even faster and we are just working on finding the staff and getting them in place as soon as possible,” said the Missoula Salvation Army Corp. Captain Josh Boyd.
A combination of things caused Salvation Army headquarters to make their decision.
“Our headquarters office saw that the need was so great and they saw that the fundraising efforts were going so well that they decided to give us the green light to move ahead without the full funding,” Boyd said. “But we still need to find the full funding to make sure that we can stay open until the end of March,” Boyd said.
The Salvation Army has raised around $37,000 so far, and that money will go to fund the staffing required to keep the shelter running through the night.
They have only $13,000 to go, and people can donate in a variety of ways.
“Folks can make a check out to salvation army they can bring it here to the salvation army. They could also put it into one of the red kettles just make sure you designate it as for the winter shelter,” Boyd said. “Also, the United Way has started a Go Fund Me campaign, so if you look on their Facebook page you can see the link to that. You can also go to our website missoula.salvationarmy.org and there is an option to donate to the winter shelter at the top of the page there as well. So there lots of ways for people to be able to donate.”
