Kalispell City Council delays taking action on Flathead Warming Center

Kalispell City Council held off on deciding the fate of the Flathead Warming Center on Tuesday, instead giving the homeless shelter’s leaders time to ease neighbors’ concerns.  

The July 16 motion to reschedule a decision on amending or revoking the nonprofit’s conditional use permit, suggested by Mayor Mark Johnson, was unanimously agreed upon after two days of public comment both for and against allowing the North Meridian Road shelter to continue operating. Council is expected to circle back to the issue in 60 days.  

“I think making a binary decision at this point in time would be a rash decision,” Johnson said Tuesday night. “... I think we owe it to the Warming Center, I think we owe it to the community, to give ourselves 60 days to see if they can come up with [a solution].” 

If they can’t, he said, then Council will face a tough decision. 

The move by Council comes after months of debate on whether the shelter reneged on promises made in its conditional use permit application. City Councilor Chad Graham initially suggested revisiting the shelter’s permit in April, saying he was responding to complaints from nearby businesses and residents.  

Council submitted nine assertions after critics accused the Warming Center of increasing homelessness, promoting loitering, being unaccountable to its neighbors and leading to increased calls for law enforcement in the area around the shelter.  

For each assertation, councilors cited public comment as evidence.  

On Monday, Warming Center officials mounted their defense during a formal hearing before Council.  

“The mission of the Flathead Warming Center is to save lives, link people to resources and encourage dignity,” said Tonya Horn, cofounder and executive director of the Warming Center, in her opening remarks. “... We defend the very existence of the Flathead Warming Center.” 

There are two options, she said, to choose from: revocation or collaboration.  

Members of the shelter’s board, like attorney Nick Aemisegger, pushed back on the assertion that the Warming Center’s leaders sought to mislead Council when seeking the conditional use permit in 2020. 

“I want to make sure that it is abundantly clear that not only did [Horn] not say that homelessness wouldn't increase, [Horn] or anyone else could never say that,” he told Council on Monday.  

“Homelessness was [already] on the rise across this country, especially in the state of Montana,” he added.  

Montana has seen a 551% increase in its unsheltered population, the steepest rise in the country, from 2007 to 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  

The Warming Center is a last case safety net for those individuals, supporters of the shelter argued. 

“No one in their right mind would ever come before Council and say that there is not going to be an increase in homelessness. Now what is true is that there is an increase in the visibility of homelessness,” Aemisegger said.  

He argued that homelessness has become more visible not because of the shelter, but owing to the withering of social services, including mental health services, and the disappearance of affordable housing. 

When discussing an increase in law enforcement calls in the neighborhood around the shelter, Roger Nasset, former Kalispell Police chief and a Warming Center board member, argued that correlation did not equal causation. There is no data showing how many calls were linked to the Flathead Warming Center, he said.  

Nasset asked Council what the municipality’s plan was for caring for the 330 people who relied on the shelter last winter if they decided to pull the permit.  

THE WARMING Center’s defense was followed by another round of public comment that lasted more than three hours during a special Council meeting on Tuesday evening. 

Many argued that homelessness is not the fault of the Warming Center. 

“I'll only say that this decision to revoke the permit, based on the assertions you made, suggests to me that this problem would therefore remedy itself simply by shuttering the Warming Center. If the problem exists after the doors of this nonprofit are closed, then you’ve made a grave mistake,” said Kyle Heineke, a member of the shelter’s board and a pastor at Fresh Life Church.  

Former Kalispell mayors Roger Hopkins and Pam Carbonari also urged Kalispell to keep the shelter open. 

But some neighbors disagreed, arguing that homelessness in the area got significantly worse after the shelter opened.  

“For the 50 people who get there each night, I don’t think there is any question that [the center] helps. It’s the people that don’t get in that affect us,” said North Meridian Road business owner Tonya Atlee. “I see the help, I see the need, but I struggle with the impact.”   

Despite the nonprofit’s good intentions, the reality is that the safety and value in the surrounding neighborhood decreased after the shelter opened, opponents said.  

“It’s in my backyard,” said North Meridian Road resident Renee Dimler Monday night during public comment. “And I don’t want it there.” 

COUNCIL ULTIMATELY opted to see if there was a way to modify how the Warming Center operates through community discussion and mediation.  

“I’d like to ask for time from the Council for them to come back and see if they can present a plan,” Johnson told his colleagues Tuesday night.  

Councilor Sid Daoud made the motion to postpone the decision. He said he was swayed by the shelters’ leaders’ assertion they were unaware of the concerns prior to the spring.   

“We have received an alarming amount of public comments from the North Meridian area residents relaying negative experiences that they attribute to the Warming Center,” Daoud said.  

Councilor Ryan Hunter, an outspoken supporter of the Warming Center the past few months, said that it was important that the city was involved in the conversation as well. Councilor Jed Fisher said that it would be good to have another cool down period.  

Mark Flatau, former Kalispell Public Schools superintendent, was suggested as a possible mediator. Flatau said he was open to it.  

Graham reiterated his concerns and questioned if the Warming Center understood that the shelter has negatively affected the neighborhood.  

“I’m gonna vote in favor of doing the 60 days,” he said. “I don’t know where it lands though.” 

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.