Housing advocates work to improve count of homeless population

Working to reach more individuals who may be experiencing homelessness, Flathead Valley outreach organizations this week took a new approach to an annual nationwide survey by holding multiple events throughout the county. 

In the past, the Point in Time surveys have been given out at the Winter Warm-up event in Kalispell, but organizers this year opted to try pop-up Community Connect events over eight days to reach more people. The last year revealed 263 people were unhoused in the Kalispell area, according to Sean O’Neill with Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana. 

“We were able to connect with folks that maybe we had lost contact with or hadn't seen for a while, which actually helped with getting the folks that weren't familiar with us and weren't comfortable open to possibly talking to us,” O’Neill said.