Flathead Warming Center concludes record season

The Flathead Warming Center closed its overnight shelter operations Sunday, wrapping up its busiest winter season ever, one where it served more than 350 people.

The shelter provides 50 beds at its North Meridian Road facility for those in need from October through April. Director Tonya Horn described the past season as a roller coaster ride.

“It has been a very busy season with its highs and lows,” Horn said this week. “We are incredibly grateful and impressed with our community. It’s our community that made this happen with over 2,000 hours spent volunteering in the shelter with our guests.”

Horn attributed the bump in community involvement, which included an influx of 73 new volunteers, to a letter issued by the Flathead County commissioners criticizing the shelter and other valley nonprofits. The missive, released in January, described the Warming Center and other social service providers working to address homelessness in the area as exacerbating the problem.

The commissioners said that charities were enabling a “homeless lifestyle” and called on residents to cease supporting such organizations.

Horn credited the letter with increasing the amount of donations to the shelter and swelling the ranks of volunteers.

Although the 354 individuals who slept at the shelter over the course of the colder months represents only a slight uptick over the previous year, Horn said that demand and resource utilization each day was much higher than they had previously seen.

“We are exhausted,” she said.

The shelter had to turn away people 364 times due to avoid overcrowding last winter, nearly double the amount from the previous season. First responders brought people into the shelter on an emergency basis 149 times, according to shelter statistics.

Guests took over 3,600 showers and were served more than 8,700 meals over the 202 days the shelter offered overnight services.

Horn took particular pride in the 24 guests that went directly to inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs after becoming enrolled at the shelter.

Coordinating with rehabs was among the 326 hours spent during the season linking guests with outside social service resources.

Horn noted that on the last night of overnight stays, the shelter was full, which she described as unusual this time of year. She is concerned that many guests did not have plans for where they will stay during the summer months.

Starting next week and extending through the summer months, the Flathead Warming Center will offer day time services Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m to 2 p.m.

Guests will still be able to eat, shower, do laundry, and access social workers and computers.

Horn thinks that Kalispell residents will notice an uptick in homeless people on the streets in the coming months, and hopes that they will realize the value of having an emergency shelter in the city.

“When we have 50 people inside for warmth, safety and structure, those are 50 people that are not on the streets,” she said. “How is that a bad thing?”

Reporter Adrian Knowler can be reached at 758-4407 or aknowler@dailyinterlake.com.