MISSOULA — The Missoula City Council received an update on their "housing sprint" efforts on Wednesday, where it was reported that 17 people are being housed to date.
“There's ups and downs. And I think we ride through challenges and successes and wins,” said City of Missoula houseless program manager Emily Armstrong.
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Armstrong says that since the start of the housing sprint in April, 148 people are currently working with the city and its partners to find housing solutions.
“They're doing it all on their own. They're just showing up to check in with us and keep us updated and seek funding, but they're working really hard to clear their own barriers,” said Armstrong.
Just over $35,000 has been spent so far on finding housing solutions for people, such as paying for rental applications, first month’s rent, or paying utility debt for those who are homeless or unhoused.
But the amount is far from what the city has been hoping to spend.
“There isn't necessarily a ton of space, a ton of capacity, to do that creative thinking. So we are trying to do some of that ourselves in spirit and offer examples of ways that funding can be used,” stated Armstrong.
City officials say that the housing sprint fund, managed by United Way, has over $300,000 within it as of June 18, with their goal being to raise $400,000 for the fund, all through private donations.
The way the funding can be spent has no defined parameters, and the city says that this allows them to think creatively about how to spend the money.
But because of this, the city states that there is still work to be done around how to appropriately distribute the resources they have on hand.
“It's hard to think about some of the resources that are available when you've never thought about a resource like that before. It's not often that we're like, oh, we have $400,000 or $100,000 to spend on people,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong also told MTN that is funds remain after the sprint is over, they will have conversations with United Way on how to try and use the remaining funds for future efforts.
