MISSOULA — Residents near Bellevue Park in Missoula shared their concerns about Missoula's new urban camping ordinance at a recent neighborhood meeting.
“I am concerned about providing safe spaces for folks but not at the expense of the children,” one concerned resident said.
This is poorly thought out and poorly planned the taxpayers paid for those parks and we have a right to use those parks and know that they're safe,” another resident stated.
We talked with neighbors who live around Bellevue Park off of Paxson Street who say they’re angry and upset about the new urban camping ordinance that the Missoula City Council passed last month.
They told MTN they are concerned about the safety of kids and families that use this park.
We talked with two people who live across the street park who woke up one morning to find two porta potties in Bellevue Park.
“We thought they were for the construction workers who are doing the storm clean up. And then we found out from our neighbor — no, that's part of the shelter in the city park plan. And so then we really are upset,” Dave Moore told MTN.
A total of a dozen parks across Missoula — two in each ward — have been designated as places where the unhoused can camp between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Penny Butler who lives by Bellevue Parks says that with several parks now available to be used by the homeless, she feels like no park is safe for families to use.
“It feels like nowhere is safe no matter which park you go to,” Bulter said.
Moore told MTN that with taxpayers spending millions of dollars on parks in Missoula there needs to be a better plan in place for the unhoused.
We talked with Missoula City Council members Amber Sherill and Mike Nugent who represent Ward 4 where Bellevue Park is located.
Nugent explained that the ordinance was passed to give the city tools to address the long-term unhoused problem in Missoula but the rollout is not what the Missoula City Council or city officials had envisioned.
“Council and the public have asked the city and the parks department to kind of reevaluate how this is being rolled out to see how we can see how we can have a better impact in some areas,” Nugent said.
The ordinance went into effect on July 24, 2024, the same day that a massive wind storm came through Missoula which caused the city to turn to clean up rather than the implementation of the ordinance.
“I think that the city wasn't able to maybe do some of the outreach and communication that they would have liked to do because the storm hit at the same time," Nugent said. "And then [the] parks department has just been slammed and we can still see around town.
Sherill explained to MTN what the intention of the ordinance is as well as what they’re hoping it will do moving forward.
“I think the intent of the ordinance is actually to push people into shelter, not to have people camping in parks. You know, that's a better place for them to have services. It's safer for the neighborhood. It's cleaner," Sherill said. "The services and the providers — whether that be Partnership Health or the outreach HOT team — they're able to find them in those places. So, our intent in the ordinance is to push people to stay in the shelter services that we are funding."
The residents we talked with say they are frustrated with the lack of transparency from the city.
The urban camping ordinance states a review will take place in January but we could see that review coming sooner.
