MISSOULA — The Poverello Center is one of two shelters — the other being the Johnson Street shelter — where the unhoused and homeless are able to go to for assistance in Missoula.
But surrounding these shelters sits a story of businesses losing customers and disturbances for the residents in the area, all due to their location next to the Poverello Center which is located on West Broadway.
The Poverello Center has been in operation for 50 years and has a staff of roughly 75 people. They provide meals, clothing, and other basic needs, a place to sleep, and job services.
Beyond what is directly provided at the center, they also have an outreach team that goes around the city distributing similar resources to those who are homeless.
For those who are served by both the center itself and the outreach team, help is not always received well, or according to those outside the Poverello Center that MTN spoke to, received at all.
“[The] HOT Team doesn’t do a lot,” said Robin Trustee, someone who shelters outside of the Poverello Center.
Trustee went on to tell MTN that over the years the center has stopped providing many resources, whether that be meals, clothing, water or cleaning the porta potties outside the center.
“They want us out of sight, out of mind.”
On top of the seeming lack of care for those in and outside the shelter, Trustee also claimed that staff at the Poverello Center are siphoning off donations — like a $120,000 check — and are abusing substances like meth themselves.
Trustee claimed that he witnessed staff unload a truck full of donated items and take some things home with them. He also claimed that he had witnessed staff members picking up meth paraphernalia only to be later seen being used by the same staff members.
Trustee largely made these claims based off the fact that many of the staff of the Poverello Center are younger — typically made up of people from Gen Z — and assumed that because of their age, they were unable to effectively manage the needs of those that they serve.
Poverello Center director Jill Bonny said that many of these claims are understandable from the perspective of those who are outside of the center but are largely untrue.
“No. A $120,000 check doesn’t go missing. We get audited every year” said Bonny.
Bonny also went on to explain that donations are sometimes turned away — mainly clothing — due to storage reasons.
“I would say, if we had to put a number on it, I would say 95% of [donations] come to the Poverello Center. There are times when people donate things we can’t use and so we re-donate those.”
Addressing the claims of the staff using substances, Bonny stated that she hoped that if someone saw a staff member using a substance like meth, they would report it to another staff member.
Bonny also stated that she understood why some people may feel like they are not receiving the care that they are looking for and gave the example of one individual asking for a comb.
“When we said we didn’t have any combs, it was like a tragedy, it was a big deal - it was a crisis for them. And how to me that’s no big deal, and just how much that can impact someone’s life who doesn’t have anything.”
Bonny went on to say that for specific individuals in a particular crisis, being unable to provide a specific item can lead to neglect and lack of care.
“I know the HOT team makes a difference in people’s lives every day.” “It’s a little bit like drinking from a fire hose every day” Bonny stated.
The issues that the Poverello Center faces largely come down to the changes in the types of substances now being abused by those that are being served — all on top of the increasing demand for both elderly care and mental health care.
“I feel like we’ve become a nursing home, a mental health center," Bonny stated.
The type of care that the center has needed to provide has changed over the years, with it largely changing after the 2017 funding cuts for homeless services when it came to housing and mental health care.
“It ends up being us — we’re just not the experts in that field,” said Bonny.
The changes in the types of substances being abused have also provided new challenges for the center.
In previous years, the substances that were being abused by those that use the center were largely meth. Now, however, that has changed with meth being overtaken by fentanyl.
Bonny explained that with this change comes the issue of people being unpredictable with their behavior. And because of this unpredictability, the ability to build up a rapport with an individual becomes more challenging, making outreach and de-escalation more difficult.
For businesses in the area, the effects of being close to the Poverello Center are clear. For Wisam Raheem, the co-owner of Kamoon Arabian Cuisine, there have been instances of people breaking the windshield of their food truck as well as employee’s bicycles being stolen on three separate occasions.
Besides the property damage and theft, Raheem explained the general disturbances that come from those around the Poverello Center directly impact his business now.
“Maybe it’s affecting us indirectly before but now there is a direct effect,” Raheem said.
Raheem told MTN that because of those around the center, customers are more hesitant to come into his business. This can come in the form of someone who is either homeless or unhoused coming in and using the restroom or grabbing a cup of water and then having customers turn around once they see them inside.
The story is the same for Montana Glass president Brian Dinberger whose store is located directly next to the Poverello Center.
“I’ve gotten to know 9-1-1,” Dinberger told MTN. “90% of customers talk about how bad this area is."
Dinberger claimed that new customers simply don’t come into the store anymore and do business with him through another medium, rather than come in person.
He went on to explain that his staff has to pick up trash off the property every morning — although the city does come by every Tuesday morning to assist with this effort.
Montana Glass hasn’t suffered from any property damage, theft, or vandalism like Kamoon Arabian Cuisine although the disturbances to his business take the form of loitering and behavioral issues.
Dinberger told MTN how there was one instance where a woman was standing in front of a truck they were attempting to unload changing her clothes.
Dinberger asked the woman to leave and after several tense moments, she left, walking away with her pants still down.
Instances like this no longer have an impact on Dinberger however as he stated that “I’m almost in some cases becoming more and more immune to it.”
Beyond disturbances like the one mentioned above, Dinberger also stated that there have been numerous instances where he witnessed drug deals occurring on the street in front of his business.
Throughout the years, the number of people who use and live outside the Poverello Center has increased.
Bonny first started seeing the increase after the state cut funding for homeless resources in 2017 and as time goes on, the number of people only seems to increase.
Dinberger and Raheem also noted the increase, stating that over the past two to three years the disturbances and number of people have substantially grown.
Those that are around the Poverello Center are left wondering what the next steps are from here as the situation appears only to be getting worse.
“The number one thing people’s comments are ‘I expected it to get better, not worse’. You know, people that haven’t been around homeless expected them to be a little more needy and trying to get a leg up but they realized they’re not really trying to get any help. They’re just using the system” Dinberger remarked.
The city has been trying to combat the issue, passing ordinance 12.60 — which allows camping in certain parks from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — as well as passing an emergency levy to fund the Johnson Street shelter for another year.
But those two measures leave some gaps, as enforcement of the ordinance is tricky with the tools the city has. Many of those who are unhoused and homeless choose not to use the shelters for various reasons.
