Demolition makes way for new shelter

On Monday, A Ray of Hope homeless shelter demolished a home across the street from its Kalispell location to create a building site for a new women’s and children’s shelter.

Assistant Director Melenie Haidys said the shelter is being built on the Bible’s principles.

“We’re a place for people who fell through the cracks, where the rest of the community gave up on them,” Haidys said. “This is more a Christian, more faith-based shelter. We have guidelines based on the Ten Commandments and basic rights.”

She said the nonprofit makes a point to run on community support instead of federal and government funding so it can maintain its independence.

A Ray of Hope (http://www.arayofhopemontana.com) accepts people with felonies and doesn’t have a maximum stay, Haidys said. The shelter does not admit people with violent or sexual assault charges and requires sober living.

Haidys said there is a lack of places for women and children in Flathead County to find sanctuary so they can rebuild their lives.

She said designating the new space for women and children also will ensure that men and women don’t form relationships within the shelter, which is against A Ray of Hope’s rules.

The new shelter is a $468,160 project. It will be a three-story structure with a total of 4,920 square feet, capable of housing 25 women and children.

A Ray of Hope shelter began in 2009 and never limited how many residents it would take at once.

In recent years, the existing five-room building hasn’t been enough.

“When it gets cold out there, I don’t want anybody to have to sleep in their car,” Haidys said. “We have people that just crash on the porch or there are mats all over the floors.”

Hilary Shaw, the executive director for the Abbie Shelter, said she is concerned A Ray of Hope hasn’t collaborated with existing community programs.

The Abbie Shelter (www.abbieshelter.org) is the only shelter in Kalispell currently intended for women and children. The shelter is at an undisclosed location to ensure families fleeing an abusive environment are safe.

“I am concerned for people who go there who are in danger from an immediate partner,” Shaw said. “At A Ray of Hope, they are not providing the same services we offer and they are so public.”

Shaw is a member of Flathead Homelessness Interagency Resource and Education, formed by local agencies to determine how to reach homeless people in the county.

She said while the organization reached out to A Ray of Hope several times, the shelter has not taken the invitation to join meetings.

Shaw said A Ray of Hope consulted her a year ago about the new shelter but she hadn’t heard from the organization since.

“We all need to work together to make sure that we’re coordinated and not redundant,” she said. “I hope they’re not reinventing the wheel.”

Bill Berry, A Ray of Hope’s head of household, said the nonprofit provides transitional housing more than emergency housing and therefore has different methods than places such as the Abbie Shelter.

“We’ll try to get them back in society again if they come through the doors with addiction or whatever,” he said.

He said each resident has to go through a background check and cameras monitor the shelter.

The organization also works closely with Child Protective Services, parole officers and local law enforcement. It also coordinates with other shelters when there’s overcrowding, Berry said.

Randy Marr, the shelter’s project coordinator, said he hopes the new shelter will be open by next winter. He said the shelter’s checks and balances are the Kalispell community, since it relies on community support to run.

Marr said while the program has enough money to start construction, another $150,000 is needed to complete the project.

“We need the village to jump in, whether that’s labor, money or materials,” he said.

Kayla Seamon, 28, said she has been at the shelter for a month.

As Seamon talked about the day she reported herself to Child Protective Services in January 2015, her 2-year-old daughter slept in a crib on the second floor of the shelter.

“I was homeless with four kids and didn’t know what to do,” Seamon said. “I ended up using after eight years of not being on drugs or alcohol.”

Seamon said once she started using drugs again, she had no place to go. She had a prison record with several felony charges, which made it difficult to find housing.

Her three oldest children moved in with their father and her youngest daughter was put in foster care with visitation rights once Seamon received treatment for her addiction. Drug-free for roughly a year, Seamon is scheduled to regain custody of her youngest daughter in April.

“I needed a sober-living structure and here they require that. They also work with my CPS workers,” she said. “It’s going to be even better for moms trying to get back on their feet when they have separate housing to have the space to be moms.”

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.