MISSOULA — While the city and the Poverello Center have turned an eye toward making changes to Missoula's homeless services, keeping the Johnson Street shelter open for another two years remains the top priority — for now.
Members of the Missoula City Council took a step in that direction on Wednesday by approving an agreement with Missoula County to split the shelter's $1.8 million annual operating cost. They also approved a services agreement with the Poverello Center to staff and operate the shelter for the next two years.
However, that second year is contingent upon the city's ability to fund the shelter's hefty cost in next year's annual budget.
“The new contract with the Poverello will be a two-year operational contract,” said Emily Armstrong, the city's homeless services director. “It allows the city and the Poverello to demonstrate our shared commitment to community housing outcomes that span those two years through a graduated approach.”
While contracting the Poverello to manage and operate the shelter isn't anything new, the contract approved on Wednesday does bring new requirements. Armstrong said they've been memorialized in a set of guiding principles and core values, which go beyond the “project-based contract” inked by the city in years past.
The agreement also brings a shift toward a housing-focused outcome that aims to support sheltered guests by guiding them toward their individual housing goals. That could include reunification with family members, gaining subsidized housing or getting treatment for chemical dependency.
“We know what the solution is and housing is at the center of it,” Armstrong said. “That's what we're working toward together.”
More accountability in exchange for contract
Looking to bring some level of accountability to the shelter, the new contract also focuses on other outcomes.
Among them, within the first six months of the new contract, the Poverello is required to build the capacity needed to implement a tracking system to monitor the number of shelter occupants who move on to temporary or permanent housing.
Cerina Azure-Kjorstad said the second half of the contract includes even steeper requirements.
“In the second half of the contract, we assign a number to that,” she said of the tracking system. “Six guests (must find) housing solutions. In the second year, it's moved up to nine guests.”
The new contract also requires the Poverello to host monthly “opportunities” for neighbors of the shelter to share concerns and solutions regarding the impacts of the shelter on surrounding residents.
Several council members described the new requirements as a “game changer.”
“That's a critical change for the better,” council member Stacie Anderson said of the requirements.
Shelter's days are limited, but investments continue
While the city and the Poverello begin the new contract, the shelter's days are slowly ticking down.
Last year, the council approved a resolution giving residents surrounding the shelter assurance that the shelter was only temporary, and that the property will be redevelopedas intended when the city purchased it in 2017.
The resolution also committed the city to master plan the property for redevelopment within one year, with a goal to remove the shelter entirely within three years. What happens after that remains uncertain, both in redevelopment and how and where the city will continue providing homeless services.
“We don't have a process actively underway right now to site those facilities without funding. That's a challenging issue to tackle,” said Armstrong. “We've been having robust conversations across the community about what types of shelters are preferred. There's a number of shelter models in discussion.”
Despite the shelter's short future, the city continues to make investments in the facility. It began operating as a “temporary winter shelter” in 2021 and continued as such for the following two winters.
But last year, homeless advocates urged the city to operate the shelter on a year-round basis, regardless of the cost. The facility was never meant to serve as a shelter, which has required the city to make improvements to the property.
Among them, the city has paid for modular restroom and sanitation facilities, added a basketball hoop and picnic tables in the courtyard, and expanded sewer and water facilities.
“These are improvements in recognition that this will not be a long-term facility, but it's the facility we're using at the current moment, and some changes are needed to make it usable,” said Armstrong.
Council members on Wednesday voted unanimously to partner with the county to fund the shelter for one year but voted 8-2 to approve the contract with the Poverello to manage the shelter.
Council members Bob Campbell and Sandra Vasecka cast the two dissenting votes.
“We're talking about a $1.8 million investment to a private company (Poverello),” Campbell said. “There's not near enough public oversite for that amount of money and where they use it, how they use it and where the money goes.”
