MISSOULA — Calling it a team effort, Missoula County on Tuesday freed up a $10,000 grant to help the Missoula Interfaith Collaborative provide shelter to homeless individuals when winter weather conditions warrant it.
County officials praised the funding as a more cost-effective way to address needs in the homeless population when compared to the cost of building and maintaining a multi-million shelter.
Claire Biddick, a grants administrator with the county, said the contract approved on Tuesday runs through June.
“It supports unhoused Missoula County residents on nights when shelters are full and temperatures feel like 10 degrees and below,” said Biddick. “This is exactly what the Community Assistance Fund intended.”
The county each year levies money into the Community Assistance Fund to provide human services and establish a “safety net” intended to meet basic human needs. Projects awarded with funding serve at-risk populations in way of food, shelter, medical care and emergency transportation.
Biddick said the partnering faith groups will be on call on a rotating schedule over the next 21 weeks to carry out the program.
“On the weeks that a congregation is on call and the emergency weather protocol is triggered, they'd be activated,” she said. “On those nights, the Poverello would do a lottery to decide who will be transferred over to those congregations.”
The bulk of the funding supports two on-call staff members to work at a congregational shelter when weather conditions are triggered. And while this year's winter conditions have been mild, commissioners said that partnering with the faith groups costs less than building and running a permanent shelter.
“This is a super cost-effective and efficient way to be able to provide emergency services without having a dedicated facility to do this,” said Commissioner Dave Strohmaier. “We have these faith communities willing to open their brick-and-mortar facilities. This is a way to shore up spending and not spend millions of dollars to build something right now.”
This is the first winter in several years where an emergency winter shelter isn't available to house the overflow population at the city's primary shelter — the Poverello. The City Council last year voted to close the Johnson Street shelter and prepare the property for redevelopment, as promised to area residents when the city purchased the property in 2019.
Commissioner Josh Slotnick said the county and its partners in the faith community are sharing the program's costs.
“The county isn't footing the entire bill. We don't have to construct or build a building. These churches are opening up their space and we're helping cover some of the staffing costs. We're not floating the whole boat. We're building a team.”
