MISSOULA — The City of Missoula recently had a 60-day housing sprint in which they were able to house 12 unhoused veterans.
“It was interesting to read the case study about this and then knowing that our community is involved in this is, it's just really exciting,” said Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis.
In affiliation with the national non-profit Built for Zero, which gave the city a $30,000 grant, they were able to find housing for 12 unhoused veterans in Missoula, with the hope that this will be the stepping stone to stable long-term housing.
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“This example is one where you see the results of really getting into more of the fine details of honing in on either particular, particular demographics, particular populations for, and then being able to be that focused and specific allows for there to be this targeted approach,” said Mayor Davis.
The City of Missoula competed with five other cities from across the country for the “housing sprint” and ended up housing the most people out of all of them.
“We focused on 15 people and got 12 out of those 15,” said City of Missoula Built for Zero specialist Dylan Barbash.
Barbash — who was one of the main leads on the project — called various landlords, often several times, to try and line up housing for the veterans.
He often referred to the idea that if someone says they can pay for housing, the city needs to trust them at their word.
There were barriers that the city ran into, mainly with people who they tried to help find housing and may have been on the sexual offenders list, which is on someone’s record indefinitely in the state of Montana.
Barbash explained that this often leads to landlords having hesitation to rent to these unhoused individuals but, with great persistence, this was a barrier that the city was able to overcome.
While the City of Missoula saw success in this sprint, the potential for future efforts like this one may face an uncertain future as funding from federal sources, like HUD VASH, was instrumental.
“If we lose HUD federal funding, it will be a very significant shift in what we're able to do. No amount of contingency planning will be able to save us from that reality. We will lose vouchers, we'll lose all of our state support at our continuum of care level,” said City of Missoula houseless programs manager Emily Armstrong.
Going forward, with the uncertainty of future federal funding, city officials say they are hoping to turn towards a more community-focused approach to helping house the homeless and unhoused.
The effort could take the form of volunteers giving a call to those who are being helped into housing or filling out an application for an apartment.
