KALISPELL — The City of Kalispell is now facing a federal lawsuit after city leaders voted to revoke the Flathead Warming Center's conditional use permit.
"What Kalispell did is truly unprecedented. The Warming Center never broke any laws. It never violated any condition of its permit. We have not been able to find another case anywhere in the United States in which a government has done to a private property owner, what the city of Kalispell has done to the warming center here," said Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Jeff Rowes.
A national nonprofit firm, the Institute for Justice, announced the lawsuit Wednesday during a press conference outside of the Flathead Warming Center.
The lawsuit focuses on private property rights and asserts the City is unfairly targeting the Warming Center because it serves homeless people.
"The ability of people to shelter the homeless on their private property is an important national issue, and this case is likely to become a test case across the country for the rights of private property owners to use their land to protect the homeless," said Rowes.
The Institute for Justice is asking a federal court to issue an emergency order that will allow the warming center to stay open as the lawsuit proceeds. Warming Center leaders say it's important their services remain available.
"If you think that we enable people with shelter here at the warming center, that is because you don't know us and you don't know the people that we serve, it's going to get very cold, and you need to know that we serve elderly people, and we serve people who have disabilities," noted Flathead Warming Center Executive Director Tonya Horn. "We serve people who are ill. We're worried about the loss of life and the loss of limb."
The Conditional Use Permit allowed the Warming Center to have overnight guests during the freezing winter months but without it, no overnight guests are allowed, making the decision on the emergency order vital. A decision from the courts is expected in the next few days.
"Tomorrow is World Homeless Day. That's because homelessness is an issue, not just here in the Flathead but throughout the whole world, and we're fighting to be able to open tomorrow, and if we can't open tomorrow, we will continue to serve the homeless, because that's what we do," said Horn.
We will continue to follow this story as it develops.
